We had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Kerri and Chris came down as well as Grandma and Grandpa Christensen! Wednesday I felt like I was cooking all day between getting Thanksgiving food prepped, salad swap for friends, regular dinner, ha but Casey was home so it was much more enjoyable!
Thanksgiving morning came and it seemed like the family was coming later in the day and since we had REALLY nice weather we went for our own little family turkey trot up and around the neighborhood! The boys rode their bikes a ton (the twins getting on and off when they felt like it of course) Max the whole time, and Easton in the triple stroller. Casey listened to music. The parent not pushing the stroller was in charge of encouraging the twins to keep going, haha. It was so much fun to be out and active with our little family! Every time I said "turkey time!" the kids were supposed to come back to me and go "gobble gobble gobble" in a circle, it was pretty funny. We ran a little over 2 miles all together. I'm grateful for an awesome husband who gives into my silly antics and traditions :)
We got ready and loaded in the car to go over for Thanksgiving! There was SO much food it was crazy! They must have been cooking all yesterday and today it seemed like! The sides are always the show piece in my book. Brad made a great stuffing, Tayli did a million rolls, Derek and Karlee did the green bean casserole, I did the sweet potato casserole, there were so many delicious side salad type things and so many pies! Mostly all store bought but still really good! I made a really yummy cookie pie and a chocolate pudding cream pie! Both were favorites for us all! They also made the strawberry pretzel jello casserole thing and that was SOO good!
We all went to Harrison park (the special ed one that is super fun for the kids) we all walked there because truly the weather was amazing! And played for a really long time! Took some silly videos and pictures and even the adults played on a couple silly contraptions. There were so many great conversations had all day with all the adults around. The kids were pretty good at playing with each other a lot of the day and it helped that Grammie bought a new really hot wheel toy that they all played with.
It was just a genuinely happy Thanksgiving day all together!
The next day was Grammie's Christmas party which is always so fun for the kids! I think it's a lot of prep for Brad and Nan and their family but it's meaningful to the kids and I think they'll remember doing it year after year! Afternoon came and there was still lots of playing outside time! All the kids went in the hot tub with Derek (the previous night it was Casey and all the kids), just lots of great sitting and chatting. Dinner was delicious leftovers from Thanksgiving our favorite! And more PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE
Saturday morning I had my Santa Photo shoots that all went well. The Price's came for the last session of the day. All my boys went to Home Depot for their craft, we try to always go to those and it's so much fun for the kids every time. I'm so very grateful they put those on! I honestly can't remember much of the day. A Christmas movie perhaps? I know I made Hawaiin haystacks for the gang. More hot tub but this time I got in with Easton and then Grammie and Kerri followed us out to with Evie, it was a party indeed!
Being around family at the Holidays is just so special. That's what they holidays are for family time! It's a lot of effort for everyone, ESPECIALLY the main mom in charge but I'm so grateful for Nan's efforts and my own mother's efforts all these past years. I only have good memories of Thanksgivings!
We also did a thankful tree in our home with the boys! We tried each day to write things we were thankful for on leaves and tape them up! It was sweet to hear it all. Here are what our leaves said this year:
-daddy and his job and mommy (B or Q?
-scriptures, church, calling, visiting teaching, Bryson (K)
-for Jesus creating all of us (M)
-milk and naps (E)
-mommy cleaning up, daddy getting a motorcycle (Q)
-daddy unplugging the toilet, a family forever (M)
-birthday, Maxons, TV, pictures, doors, donuts (B)
-healthy family, CHM, vaccines (K)
-pictures on the wall, beds God made us, preschool, nathan, Dax, Brylee, Aidyn, Hendrix, Katherine (M)
-Jim and Jan and new clothes (B)
-Casey's job, Rock Springs, Overland ward (K)
-daddy building a bench (M)
-halloween stuff in the house (B)
-milk and Sippie cups (Q)
-food (M)
-facetiming, Granny Woodruff, Grammie Cutler (K)
-clothes (M)
-Heavenly Father gives us a sister (M)
-daddy goes to work and earns money (B)
-Atonement and Eternal families (K)
-night nights, beds, blanket, room (Q)
-Jesus and the gospel (M)
-Jesus, sports, and job (K?)
-diapers, washing machine, diaper cream, soap, tooth brushes, tooth paste (K)
-Jesus built our homes (M)
-coloring books, crayons (B)
-Jesus gives us families and the whole world and temple and churches and food (M)
-Mrs B. (M)
-library, gymnastics, race center, good friends (K)
-Granny and Papa, Grammie and Grandpa Cutler, FaceTime (K)
-dad make the trampoline, heavenly father let plant grow in the summer and rain and we clean up the yard
-Casey, Bryson, Maxson, Quinn, Easton (K)
-Mom, dad, settlers, married (M)
-mommy and daddy (Q)
-Maxson helps me (B)
-Amazon, instagram, smiths (K)
-Bob and owning our house (K)
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Maxson turns 5!
Maxson turns 5!
He is a special boy, he's truly a very loving boy. Takes care of others needs, is thoughtful, can be super loving, can focus very well and is a deep thinker. He's growing up so much, it's just crazy!
Just yesterday he asked me "Is God going to give us a sister?" In definitely caught me off guard. I answered "I sure hope so! But I don't know. Our next baby may be a boy or a girl, but you can pray for a sister because God answers prayers sweet boy!"
Another day we had a conversation about Sis Huff (his primary teacher) Max tells me "Did you know Sis Huff's Dad died? How will she get a new dad?" From there we had a little discussion on eternal families and heaven and waiting and it was a sweet, but quick little conversation we had together.
Another day during a prayer, Max gives such sweet prayers so often, Casey and I are always squinting our eyes open to look at each other with a little smirk with a "did you hear that?" during his prayers, he's really so so sweet and thoughtful. Things he's said during prayers lately:
-Grateful me and my brothers can be on the same soccer team together
-Grateful we can be a family forever and mommy and daddy were married in the temple
-Please that we can have a baby sister
-Grateful our elf can go bak to the north pole to talk to Santa and come back
I know there's more adorable things just can't think of any!
So he was super excited for his birthday! He saw it on the calendar way long ago and was just looking forward to the day for months! On his birthday morning he woke up and I happened to be awake trying to shew the twins back upstairs into bed at 5:45 am, he came down and I got to see his sweet face of excitement as he looked at all the decorations and his presents! I gave him a big hug and said "Happy birthday sweet boy! Now go back to bed" haha.
One the light in their room turned green we all came downstair to open presents! He was such a sweet boy excited for each one no matter how big or small.
We made waffles for breakfast because he loves waffles! And even put mini M&M's on it, lit candles and sang happy birthday/let him blow out the candles as many times as he wanted. We then got to cleaning the house and getting it ready for his friends to come over for his birthday party! He's never been such a fantastic cleaner without complaining before lol, he even started BOB fo me! he just kept asking are my friends coming over now?! (and the count down was like 3 hours haha)
His friends came over for a super hero party! Everyone was supposed to wear their favorite super hero costume and there were some cute kids! Max invited, Adyn, Brodie, Crue, Adalyn, Serenity, Owen, Meitzen and of course Bryson and Quinn (those who couldn't come were Kelly, Nathan, Mason, and Dax.) So there were a lot of fun kids! When they got here they jumped on the tramp for a long time and played in the bounce house. I led them through "Super hero super hero come alive" and then all the balls on the tramps were bad guys they had to run away from. We came in and had pizza I had picked up from Papa Murphys. I squeezed all the kids around our kitchen table and the twins were SO eager to sit on big chairs with all the big kids, it was one of those mama heart melting moments where they wanted to be big like everyone else, it was so cute haha.
Next we opened presents, then they all got to be Hulk and smash down a wall of bricks they had to keep building over and over (at this pint max was being a stinker and not participating and being pouty and that made me frustrated.) At the perfect moment Casey came home from work and I prepped him how to be a bad guy and then told all the kids that a bad guy just robbed a bank and stole a bunch of money! Their eyes were huge (the twins were so into it) and I told them if they see a bad guy to drag them over to this chair and tie him up! At the perfect moment Casey came in with the Hulk mask on yelling he just robbed a bank! The kids were so cute all on him like flies trying to drag him over to the chair, so funny. I then gave them all a little pack of streamers and they wrapped Casey to the chair, it was just so so so funny and fun for the kids. I'm glad Casey got to be apart of the party!
They jumped on the tramp and bounce house for a while and then came in and had cake and sang to Maxson and then back out jumping and left! It was a wonderful little birthday party and I'm so glad to we got to celebrate Maxson with his friends!
We had a little down time and watched Boss baby. The kids kept eating pizza and cake all day, and then we went for a quick look at the festival of trees at a local bank. Nothing quite compared to Utah, but still fun for the kids! When we got home we let the kids stay up a watch some small Christmas movies while eating popcorn and cereal. They all felt like it was so special and it was a great night to end with all our boys right around us. I love our little family. And I love that we have been blessed With mAson as our oldest child, he really is such a great one!
Also he was so eager to measured on the growth chart for his birthday! He's right under 4 feet!
He is a special boy, he's truly a very loving boy. Takes care of others needs, is thoughtful, can be super loving, can focus very well and is a deep thinker. He's growing up so much, it's just crazy!
Just yesterday he asked me "Is God going to give us a sister?" In definitely caught me off guard. I answered "I sure hope so! But I don't know. Our next baby may be a boy or a girl, but you can pray for a sister because God answers prayers sweet boy!"
Another day we had a conversation about Sis Huff (his primary teacher) Max tells me "Did you know Sis Huff's Dad died? How will she get a new dad?" From there we had a little discussion on eternal families and heaven and waiting and it was a sweet, but quick little conversation we had together.
Another day during a prayer, Max gives such sweet prayers so often, Casey and I are always squinting our eyes open to look at each other with a little smirk with a "did you hear that?" during his prayers, he's really so so sweet and thoughtful. Things he's said during prayers lately:
-Grateful me and my brothers can be on the same soccer team together
-Grateful we can be a family forever and mommy and daddy were married in the temple
-Please that we can have a baby sister
-Grateful our elf can go bak to the north pole to talk to Santa and come back
I know there's more adorable things just can't think of any!
So he was super excited for his birthday! He saw it on the calendar way long ago and was just looking forward to the day for months! On his birthday morning he woke up and I happened to be awake trying to shew the twins back upstairs into bed at 5:45 am, he came down and I got to see his sweet face of excitement as he looked at all the decorations and his presents! I gave him a big hug and said "Happy birthday sweet boy! Now go back to bed" haha.
One the light in their room turned green we all came downstair to open presents! He was such a sweet boy excited for each one no matter how big or small.
We made waffles for breakfast because he loves waffles! And even put mini M&M's on it, lit candles and sang happy birthday/let him blow out the candles as many times as he wanted. We then got to cleaning the house and getting it ready for his friends to come over for his birthday party! He's never been such a fantastic cleaner without complaining before lol, he even started BOB fo me! he just kept asking are my friends coming over now?! (and the count down was like 3 hours haha)
His friends came over for a super hero party! Everyone was supposed to wear their favorite super hero costume and there were some cute kids! Max invited, Adyn, Brodie, Crue, Adalyn, Serenity, Owen, Meitzen and of course Bryson and Quinn (those who couldn't come were Kelly, Nathan, Mason, and Dax.) So there were a lot of fun kids! When they got here they jumped on the tramp for a long time and played in the bounce house. I led them through "Super hero super hero come alive" and then all the balls on the tramps were bad guys they had to run away from. We came in and had pizza I had picked up from Papa Murphys. I squeezed all the kids around our kitchen table and the twins were SO eager to sit on big chairs with all the big kids, it was one of those mama heart melting moments where they wanted to be big like everyone else, it was so cute haha.
Next we opened presents, then they all got to be Hulk and smash down a wall of bricks they had to keep building over and over (at this pint max was being a stinker and not participating and being pouty and that made me frustrated.) At the perfect moment Casey came home from work and I prepped him how to be a bad guy and then told all the kids that a bad guy just robbed a bank and stole a bunch of money! Their eyes were huge (the twins were so into it) and I told them if they see a bad guy to drag them over to this chair and tie him up! At the perfect moment Casey came in with the Hulk mask on yelling he just robbed a bank! The kids were so cute all on him like flies trying to drag him over to the chair, so funny. I then gave them all a little pack of streamers and they wrapped Casey to the chair, it was just so so so funny and fun for the kids. I'm glad Casey got to be apart of the party!
They jumped on the tramp and bounce house for a while and then came in and had cake and sang to Maxson and then back out jumping and left! It was a wonderful little birthday party and I'm so glad to we got to celebrate Maxson with his friends!
We had a little down time and watched Boss baby. The kids kept eating pizza and cake all day, and then we went for a quick look at the festival of trees at a local bank. Nothing quite compared to Utah, but still fun for the kids! When we got home we let the kids stay up a watch some small Christmas movies while eating popcorn and cereal. They all felt like it was so special and it was a great night to end with all our boys right around us. I love our little family. And I love that we have been blessed With mAson as our oldest child, he really is such a great one!
Also he was so eager to measured on the growth chart for his birthday! He's right under 4 feet!
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
11 months of Easton
SO much happened between 10 and 11 months for Easton. the biggest: WALKING! On Oct 20 I think he took his first steps and within a week he was truly walking wherever he wanted. He's just the stinking cutest.
I feel like last month is when he he learned to wave hi and bye to people.
He gives the biggest kisses!
He is obsessed with milk and his bottle! LOVES both of them oh so much! It's adorable and funny to watch him walk around the house with his bottle going to town on his bottle of milk.
I think he's for sure my pickiest baby eater yet. Like seriously kid?! Just eat what I give you! Ha, don't get me wrong he does eat a lot of the food we give him, but there's a lot he chooses not to eat ha
He can constantly be found wondering wherever his brothers are. He's our little shadow always.
He babbles all the time and it's so adorable to listen to. talks and talks and talks
He had his first Thanksgiving and Halloween! He slept through Thanksgiving and was a warm baby kept from being frost bitten cold at Halloween.
He loves other babies. Others his age or a little older or a little younger. He instantly talks and talks to them hugs pulls kisses brings toys to. He's just the stinking cutest with other babies.
He still does is his scrunchy noses heavy breathing through his nose thing and the rest of us family members mimic it too bc we think it's so adorable.
Long live baby in the Cutler home! (bc Easton is already changing into a big baby! I can't believe my BABY Easton is changing from my tiny baby
He loves pulling all the ornaments off that tree! Darn that baby!
He is super good at stairs and heights
He always spits out what's in his mouth for you. It's so incredibly helpful!
I feel like last month is when he he learned to wave hi and bye to people.
He gives the biggest kisses!
He is obsessed with milk and his bottle! LOVES both of them oh so much! It's adorable and funny to watch him walk around the house with his bottle going to town on his bottle of milk.
I think he's for sure my pickiest baby eater yet. Like seriously kid?! Just eat what I give you! Ha, don't get me wrong he does eat a lot of the food we give him, but there's a lot he chooses not to eat ha
He can constantly be found wondering wherever his brothers are. He's our little shadow always.
He babbles all the time and it's so adorable to listen to. talks and talks and talks
He had his first Thanksgiving and Halloween! He slept through Thanksgiving and was a warm baby kept from being frost bitten cold at Halloween.
He loves other babies. Others his age or a little older or a little younger. He instantly talks and talks to them hugs pulls kisses brings toys to. He's just the stinking cutest with other babies.
He still does is his scrunchy noses heavy breathing through his nose thing and the rest of us family members mimic it too bc we think it's so adorable.
Long live baby in the Cutler home! (bc Easton is already changing into a big baby! I can't believe my BABY Easton is changing from my tiny baby
He loves pulling all the ornaments off that tree! Darn that baby!
He is super good at stairs and heights
He always spits out what's in his mouth for you. It's so incredibly helpful!
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
8th anniversary !
This year marks our 8th anniversary!
It feels like it's far and few between the times where I'm not nursing a baby or quite pregnant that we get to go somewhere alone so it was extra special.
A huge snowstorm came in Friday, the day we were meant to leave for Provo, darn it! Lucky we were able to make it work that weekend or I would have been oh so sad! So instead we left Saturday morning after we dropped all the kids over at Brad and Nan's house , they were so sweet to say yes to watching the kids for us. It really meant a lot and we are so grateful they would do that ofr us.
We had a wonderful drive down to Provo! We mostly just got to chat and chat and chat, UNITERRUPTED catching up on small things we wanted to tell each other, stories, thoughts, opinions, I could just talk to Casey all the freaking day long. I love that man.
We got to Provo and started at Sweet Burrito, a new place and it was really delicious! It's often hard to talk Casey into going and trying a new place but this one was a definite winner that we'll come back to! We parked in Casey's favorite parking spot for the BYU football games, and then walked to the BYU bookstore to look for a Christmas present. Then walked over to the football game! I've loved getting to go to the football games with Casey again, this year and last. It was just hearing about the experience of the football games casey had with each of the kids; he's such a a fun dad and you can can tell from his words that each boy and him had such a great time together. BYU football is totally crap this year, ha. But we still love trying to cheer them on. We left right before half time. It also was FREEZING! We were in the shade at first and I was dying, once we moved to an area of sun it was much better. Got our beloved cougar tail but we couldn't even eat it all! Go cougs. Better luck next year though, ha.
We quickly went to the temple and did a sealing session which was fun! I love getting to do temple sealings for our anniversary month to remind of us of the words!
We picked up some quick things Sam's Club.
Dropped our stuff off at the hotel.
Ran over to Olive Garden. Casey was so happy for that chicken alfredo and breadsticks and salad! And it really was super good! I trie the Zupa Toscano soup this time around and it was awesome. While sitting at the table we answered random couples questions back and forth which is always fun to get to know each other more.
We quickly ran back over to BYU to catch the basketball game! We got lucky and some random guy gave us sweet tickets. Row 9 and nice padded seats! Again, the team wasn't so hot but it's alwsways fun to just be there cheering on BYU.
Came back to the hotel and I was so stinking tired from the day's activities! I got 10 hours of UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP. that felt stinking amazing. We did church in Evanston back to our kids and our marriage/love cups were definitely filled up. So happy I got to spend som alone time with my wonderful eternal companion. How I love him to the ends of the earth!
Thursday, November 2, 2017
10 happy things
1. When Bryson and Quinn pretend to go on trips with luggage, adult shoes, hats. They go on missions, church meetings, dates, grammie's house, school. When Bryson tells me he tries to suppress his smile so much and his dimples are so apparent. Quinn has that deeper voice with furrowed eye brows and a serious face. They love playing together
2. Today the 3 boys played doggies. Crawling around then house like a dog, up and downstairs, into other rooms, they played so well together, I don't even know what they did they just played!
3. Casey teaching the boys how to hit balls today. Each one taking their turn getting up to bat, SO excited when they actually hit the ball. This is what all my parenthood dreams are made of, playing baseball in the backyard with your small children! It was magical
4. When Max takes Easton on the tramp all by himself to play with. Easton loves all the attention Max gives him. Except Max doesn't love all the attention Easton gives him i.e. getting into his toys he's playing with. Max carries Easton over to me and exasperating says "you deal with him!" They are the best
5. When Casey comes home from work the boys often hide and then everyone tries to scare each other. Casey does such a wonderful job at coming home so happy to see us, even if he's tired. He's just the best dad and husband
6. My robot vacuum, seriously it has changed my life and 100% made my home cleaner! I love turning that baby on sitting back while it cleans the downstairs!
7. Reading my scriptures so much more during the day! I love understanding the stories better/again, following characters and lineage, knowing Im doing what I am supposed to each day and going to bed happy and not feeling bad. I love the way I feel all day long!
8. My mom texting me stuff during the day that she's thinking of me. I'm so glad I get her as my best friend. We're lucky to have each other!
9. Watching Easton walk everywhere! After a week of learning to walk he just took off and he's everywhere! I love being surprised every time I see him toddle into a room! He has the sweetest smile
10. Watching shows with Casey at night, I love that we can find stuff we like together :)
2. Today the 3 boys played doggies. Crawling around then house like a dog, up and downstairs, into other rooms, they played so well together, I don't even know what they did they just played!
3. Casey teaching the boys how to hit balls today. Each one taking their turn getting up to bat, SO excited when they actually hit the ball. This is what all my parenthood dreams are made of, playing baseball in the backyard with your small children! It was magical
4. When Max takes Easton on the tramp all by himself to play with. Easton loves all the attention Max gives him. Except Max doesn't love all the attention Easton gives him i.e. getting into his toys he's playing with. Max carries Easton over to me and exasperating says "you deal with him!" They are the best
5. When Casey comes home from work the boys often hide and then everyone tries to scare each other. Casey does such a wonderful job at coming home so happy to see us, even if he's tired. He's just the best dad and husband
6. My robot vacuum, seriously it has changed my life and 100% made my home cleaner! I love turning that baby on sitting back while it cleans the downstairs!
7. Reading my scriptures so much more during the day! I love understanding the stories better/again, following characters and lineage, knowing Im doing what I am supposed to each day and going to bed happy and not feeling bad. I love the way I feel all day long!
8. My mom texting me stuff during the day that she's thinking of me. I'm so glad I get her as my best friend. We're lucky to have each other!
9. Watching Easton walk everywhere! After a week of learning to walk he just took off and he's everywhere! I love being surprised every time I see him toddle into a room! He has the sweetest smile
10. Watching shows with Casey at night, I love that we can find stuff we like together :)
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Halloween 2017
Halloween was just wonderful with my littles. Holidays are so much more special and magical with children around! I loved every second! It started out with Grammie and Grandpa's ward trunk or treat. That was the first time we got to dress up as aa family and it was so fun. I'm so glad the boys talked me out of the costume I wanted to do, instead we were the Avengers! Casey-Hulk, Kimber- Black Widow, Maxson- Iron Man, Bryson- Captain America, Quinn- Spiderman, Easton- Thor. Everyone was so stinking cute in their costumes (thanks Goodwill finds!). I loved that the twins caught onto the phrase "avengers, Assemble!" but would say " Abengers, assemble!" The kids loved their first chance of trick or treating (in the freezing cold) to all the cars!
While Casey was out of town with Max in Utah, i took the twins and Easton downtown Rock Springs to trick or treat around there, it wasn't a cold day so that was a relief. We happened to meet up with the Barrows which made walking around so fun. By the the end (not even finishing all the businesses) Quinn and Bryson were saying "I'm tired, I want to go home" haha, so we stopped. That's so cute about little kids and trick or treating. Kids are too tired to get tons of candy, ha!
Sunday night we carved pumpkins at the in Green River with the family, Tayli helped us and it was so fun. Watching then boys pulling out all the guts, making fun eww and gross faces, Easton constantly picking up knives and wanted to be in all the action sitting on everyone's pumpkins, Tayli cutting a huge hole in her pumpkin cutting out her ghost on accident, after mAx carved his pumpkin all by himself! he then claimed my pumpkin as his, lol. I love the smell of carving pumpkins :)
On Monday, we all got to go to Maxson's preschool Halloween party where they sang the spooky ABC's, the creepy crawly spider, dead bones, 5 little pumpkins. I love his little preschool and he does too! We were lucky that Casey got to come too.
Monday evening we made dinner in a pumpkin and invited the Luthi's and Larson's over. Everyone was little skeptical of dinner but it tasted delicious.
And then to Halloween day! We made mummy hot dogs, did Halloween handprints on our canvases, and then got ready for trick or treating, the main event! Unfortunately it was quite a cold and windy night! But we did an intense round of tri-ward trunk or treating at our church, I got to hand out candy and it was so fun seeing all the trick or treaters come by and happily hand out candy! Once the kids got too cold, they got in the car with me (I was actually in Emily Jenkins car because it's more fun with a friend) and LOVED helping hand out candy! We then came home, and took the kids just to about 8 houses on our street to see some neighbors, it was the most GORGEOUS sunset! But so windy and cold, the kids were practically crying because their hands hurt they were so cold, so we made it down to the Larrsens and came back home!
After back the kids dumped out ALLLLL their candy and boy was it a lot! Not quite sure what we're going to do with it all! Easton kept swiping suckers and walked around with one in his mouth and holding another in a hand haha, we'd take them away but he kept finding more suckers to swipe! I took the big boys to to the fire station for their large size candy bar which they loved and we picked up some Little Caesar's pizza. The boys ate way too much candy and went to bed way too late but we all had a very fun Halloween day! Casey and I watched the Nightmare before Christmas (my first time ever watching!) and called it a night. Except we had so much fun looking at facebook and instagram of all our friends cute costumes! There were so many cute family themed ones, I loved it!
Happy Halloween!
While Casey was out of town with Max in Utah, i took the twins and Easton downtown Rock Springs to trick or treat around there, it wasn't a cold day so that was a relief. We happened to meet up with the Barrows which made walking around so fun. By the the end (not even finishing all the businesses) Quinn and Bryson were saying "I'm tired, I want to go home" haha, so we stopped. That's so cute about little kids and trick or treating. Kids are too tired to get tons of candy, ha!
Sunday night we carved pumpkins at the in Green River with the family, Tayli helped us and it was so fun. Watching then boys pulling out all the guts, making fun eww and gross faces, Easton constantly picking up knives and wanted to be in all the action sitting on everyone's pumpkins, Tayli cutting a huge hole in her pumpkin cutting out her ghost on accident, after mAx carved his pumpkin all by himself! he then claimed my pumpkin as his, lol. I love the smell of carving pumpkins :)
On Monday, we all got to go to Maxson's preschool Halloween party where they sang the spooky ABC's, the creepy crawly spider, dead bones, 5 little pumpkins. I love his little preschool and he does too! We were lucky that Casey got to come too.
Monday evening we made dinner in a pumpkin and invited the Luthi's and Larson's over. Everyone was little skeptical of dinner but it tasted delicious.
And then to Halloween day! We made mummy hot dogs, did Halloween handprints on our canvases, and then got ready for trick or treating, the main event! Unfortunately it was quite a cold and windy night! But we did an intense round of tri-ward trunk or treating at our church, I got to hand out candy and it was so fun seeing all the trick or treaters come by and happily hand out candy! Once the kids got too cold, they got in the car with me (I was actually in Emily Jenkins car because it's more fun with a friend) and LOVED helping hand out candy! We then came home, and took the kids just to about 8 houses on our street to see some neighbors, it was the most GORGEOUS sunset! But so windy and cold, the kids were practically crying because their hands hurt they were so cold, so we made it down to the Larrsens and came back home!
After back the kids dumped out ALLLLL their candy and boy was it a lot! Not quite sure what we're going to do with it all! Easton kept swiping suckers and walked around with one in his mouth and holding another in a hand haha, we'd take them away but he kept finding more suckers to swipe! I took the big boys to to the fire station for their large size candy bar which they loved and we picked up some Little Caesar's pizza. The boys ate way too much candy and went to bed way too late but we all had a very fun Halloween day! Casey and I watched the Nightmare before Christmas (my first time ever watching!) and called it a night. Except we had so much fun looking at facebook and instagram of all our friends cute costumes! There were so many cute family themed ones, I loved it!
Happy Halloween!
For me, Halloween is one of the BEST facebook days of the year. Unlike mother's day when it's pictures of everyone's mom or Easter when it's pictures of everyone in nice Sunday clothes, Halloween is when everyone posts their FUN and DIFFERENT and WITTY and SURPRISING Halloween costumes! It's like a surprise everytime I open my newsfeed! I absolutely love it! People are so creative and kids are adorable and adults can be hilarious. Here's some of my favorite local friends cute costumes I couldn't help but share and remember!
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Easton 9 and 10 months!
His big mile stone at 9 months was going down the starers by himself, seriously such a rockstar child! I barely spent any time with him, he never had a bad fall, he just did it when we'd turn around! He always yells at the top of the stairs waiting for me to come get him or to help turn him around to come down. I got lucky with that one!
A week before 10 months we stopped nursing :( Big sad face over here. I totally would have kept going and tried (hey fenugreek!) but my body was just not making such milk for him and he's just be frustrated and nurse, and look up at me and cry in frustration and go at it again and not get that much, made me feel so bad! My kids are always great nursing babies, it's me that's the weak one! So I nursed him one last time during our utah trip and that's been that. I've almost always had to supplement him with formula after nursing which stunk. It was only after I truly stopped nursing that I realized, ok Kimber, you actually were making milk still on each nursing session! Im definitely having to feed him twice as much bottle or even more to make him happy.
And now 10 months!
-2 top teeth are barely starting to peek through, the two on the right
-He's a loud talker and just babbles and babbles and yells for attention, that cuteness
-got 1 ear infection at about 9 1/2 months
-can turn around at the top of the stairs and come down all by himself
-is mostly sleeping through the night. Sleep training was hard, I hate hearing him cry but I was done waking up in the middle of the night for a 4:30 am feeding, I knew he didn't need it. Sleep 9-11 hours at night depending on when we put him down.
-crawls fast
-Adores Max and Max him. Max gets the baby and just takes him on the tramp to play with him, they're so darling
-takes 1-2 naps a day
-great car sleeper and transitioner to the house
-just so so so stinking adorable!!!!!!!!
A week before 10 months we stopped nursing :( Big sad face over here. I totally would have kept going and tried (hey fenugreek!) but my body was just not making such milk for him and he's just be frustrated and nurse, and look up at me and cry in frustration and go at it again and not get that much, made me feel so bad! My kids are always great nursing babies, it's me that's the weak one! So I nursed him one last time during our utah trip and that's been that. I've almost always had to supplement him with formula after nursing which stunk. It was only after I truly stopped nursing that I realized, ok Kimber, you actually were making milk still on each nursing session! Im definitely having to feed him twice as much bottle or even more to make him happy.
And now 10 months!
-2 top teeth are barely starting to peek through, the two on the right
-He's a loud talker and just babbles and babbles and yells for attention, that cuteness
-got 1 ear infection at about 9 1/2 months
-can turn around at the top of the stairs and come down all by himself
-is mostly sleeping through the night. Sleep training was hard, I hate hearing him cry but I was done waking up in the middle of the night for a 4:30 am feeding, I knew he didn't need it. Sleep 9-11 hours at night depending on when we put him down.
-crawls fast
-Adores Max and Max him. Max gets the baby and just takes him on the tramp to play with him, they're so darling
-takes 1-2 naps a day
-great car sleeper and transitioner to the house
-just so so so stinking adorable!!!!!!!!
A little Fall Utah trip!
Casey's office was closed for a week in October so we planned a little get away to Utah since we wanted some real, intense FALL around here, not just, yellow leaves and sprinkles of snow haha.
We left right after Max finished preschool on Wednesday, drove down to Utah, and played at Cornbelly's that evening! They've done such a great job with it, and it really was a lot of fun. I felt like we got to do all the activities: a big bounce pillow, little kids play/pretend houses, some pirate ship playgrounds, big slides, corn pit, duck/water pumping game, a super fun mini zipline, watching pig races, eating apple cider donuts. Just good old fashioned fun! All the kids did so great, except Quinn would kind of keep wondering off and was definitely scary at times standing there looking everywhere for him, that little stinker.
Within 5 minutes of getting in the car all the kids were out, but they did great not whining about their tiredness!
We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Christensens. The kids were so excited to wake up and go find them! They are such sweet great grandparents, I'm so grateful to have them in our life! (But the way this is the last night I nursed easton, tear. I wish I could keep going but I just don't have the milk supply and he just gets frustrated. Glad we lasted as long as we did though)
We tried to quickly get out and went to Provo to walk through the Bean Museum! Casey and I never got to go there while at BYU since it was under construction the last year or two so it was a first for us all! We walked in and Quinn runs to the first display of animals, ducks under the rope and starts touching them all, haha, my precious savage child. But they liked it and i think Casey and I did a good job at keeping the pace and info at a small childs info, ha.
We jumped over to the creamery to have some declisou ice cream! Max picked orange sherbet, Quinn picked Strawberry, and Bryson picked cookie dough. Easton loved it, and crawled all over the table trying to steal everyone's cups, we were quite the sight in that booth with all our kids.
At the last minute we decided to hike the Y with the whole family! Now that is not an easy hike! I seriously cannot believe we made it to the top haha. The twins were whining literally on the first stretch haha. The first 2 switchbacks are the longest and hardest and I said to Casey "we tried but this isn't going to happen, let's turn around" for some reason he was so positive and, bless Casey's heart, he's usually not that optimistic lol, but he was on this! So we kept going. About each switch back Casey would carry the twins in both arms halfway and have them walk the second half, ha. They were tough cookies, that's a hard hike! And I had Easton sleeping on my back the whole time too, that 25 lb weight on my back did not make it easy! Max was a rockstar, not one complaint, always in the front, he was on fire. Casey never complained and was so happy listening to music and working with the twins, bless that man The leaves all around us were gorgeous too! Love fall up there! We were all so happy to make it to the top! On the way down there was still lots of crying and whining but still fun, haha, we'd take turns holding the hands of each twin and Max practically ran down. I forgot, on the way up the 2nd switchback, Quinn and I fell behind and the only way I could Quinn up the hill was telling him I'd carry him some of it so with 25 lb Eason on my back, 45 lb Quinn on my front, I leaned over struggling to go up the steep uphill and couldn't stop laughing Quinn said "stop heh heh ing!" Apparently that's what my laugh sounded like, which made me laugh more which made him more mad, it was just so funny
After the Y we did delicious IN-N-Out. Drove up to the bottom of the Tipmanogas hike and met Amanda and her kids and hiked to first falls! The twins were hiked out so Casey stayed behind with the 3 youngins while Max and I did another hike. This was even more beautiful than the last and we made it to the waterfall! It was really fun and a great talk with Amanda!
We ended up hanging out with Amanda and Weston that night, going to Brittons soccer game (where Max was just itching to get in the game and totally did on timeouts), came back and played a little, roasted marshmallows, talked some more, it was a great evening! Love that my kids are becoming great friends with their cousins.
The next morning we said goodbye to the Christensens, they are so wonderful and then we drove up to SLC! We met Logan and Blair there (who happened to be visiting Utah this week too!) it was fun to have the girls run up and say hi to us! We toured the conference center together, took pictures by the temple, did a couple visitor centers where we got to teach the boys about Christ and missionaries and the temple, ate lunch on the grass, and then I literally ran to the temple and was able to make it into an endowment session, yay! It always feels so special getting to go to the temple! Casey and I chatted and we've been able to make it just about every month to the temple since living in Wyoming surprisingly, glad we can make it a priority.
The family then went to Debbie and Lorins and i met them there after and that night we had a cousin dinner! It was so fun. Love seeing all these wonderful people we're related to. I'm grateful to have eternal bones with them. They're instant friends taking care of my kids, interested in life, they are just so darn wonderful!
And that was our wonderful and short Utah trip!
We left right after Max finished preschool on Wednesday, drove down to Utah, and played at Cornbelly's that evening! They've done such a great job with it, and it really was a lot of fun. I felt like we got to do all the activities: a big bounce pillow, little kids play/pretend houses, some pirate ship playgrounds, big slides, corn pit, duck/water pumping game, a super fun mini zipline, watching pig races, eating apple cider donuts. Just good old fashioned fun! All the kids did so great, except Quinn would kind of keep wondering off and was definitely scary at times standing there looking everywhere for him, that little stinker.
Within 5 minutes of getting in the car all the kids were out, but they did great not whining about their tiredness!
We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Christensens. The kids were so excited to wake up and go find them! They are such sweet great grandparents, I'm so grateful to have them in our life! (But the way this is the last night I nursed easton, tear. I wish I could keep going but I just don't have the milk supply and he just gets frustrated. Glad we lasted as long as we did though)
We tried to quickly get out and went to Provo to walk through the Bean Museum! Casey and I never got to go there while at BYU since it was under construction the last year or two so it was a first for us all! We walked in and Quinn runs to the first display of animals, ducks under the rope and starts touching them all, haha, my precious savage child. But they liked it and i think Casey and I did a good job at keeping the pace and info at a small childs info, ha.
We jumped over to the creamery to have some declisou ice cream! Max picked orange sherbet, Quinn picked Strawberry, and Bryson picked cookie dough. Easton loved it, and crawled all over the table trying to steal everyone's cups, we were quite the sight in that booth with all our kids.
At the last minute we decided to hike the Y with the whole family! Now that is not an easy hike! I seriously cannot believe we made it to the top haha. The twins were whining literally on the first stretch haha. The first 2 switchbacks are the longest and hardest and I said to Casey "we tried but this isn't going to happen, let's turn around" for some reason he was so positive and, bless Casey's heart, he's usually not that optimistic lol, but he was on this! So we kept going. About each switch back Casey would carry the twins in both arms halfway and have them walk the second half, ha. They were tough cookies, that's a hard hike! And I had Easton sleeping on my back the whole time too, that 25 lb weight on my back did not make it easy! Max was a rockstar, not one complaint, always in the front, he was on fire. Casey never complained and was so happy listening to music and working with the twins, bless that man The leaves all around us were gorgeous too! Love fall up there! We were all so happy to make it to the top! On the way down there was still lots of crying and whining but still fun, haha, we'd take turns holding the hands of each twin and Max practically ran down. I forgot, on the way up the 2nd switchback, Quinn and I fell behind and the only way I could Quinn up the hill was telling him I'd carry him some of it so with 25 lb Eason on my back, 45 lb Quinn on my front, I leaned over struggling to go up the steep uphill and couldn't stop laughing Quinn said "stop heh heh ing!" Apparently that's what my laugh sounded like, which made me laugh more which made him more mad, it was just so funny
After the Y we did delicious IN-N-Out. Drove up to the bottom of the Tipmanogas hike and met Amanda and her kids and hiked to first falls! The twins were hiked out so Casey stayed behind with the 3 youngins while Max and I did another hike. This was even more beautiful than the last and we made it to the waterfall! It was really fun and a great talk with Amanda!
We ended up hanging out with Amanda and Weston that night, going to Brittons soccer game (where Max was just itching to get in the game and totally did on timeouts), came back and played a little, roasted marshmallows, talked some more, it was a great evening! Love that my kids are becoming great friends with their cousins.
The next morning we said goodbye to the Christensens, they are so wonderful and then we drove up to SLC! We met Logan and Blair there (who happened to be visiting Utah this week too!) it was fun to have the girls run up and say hi to us! We toured the conference center together, took pictures by the temple, did a couple visitor centers where we got to teach the boys about Christ and missionaries and the temple, ate lunch on the grass, and then I literally ran to the temple and was able to make it into an endowment session, yay! It always feels so special getting to go to the temple! Casey and I chatted and we've been able to make it just about every month to the temple since living in Wyoming surprisingly, glad we can make it a priority.
The family then went to Debbie and Lorins and i met them there after and that night we had a cousin dinner! It was so fun. Love seeing all these wonderful people we're related to. I'm grateful to have eternal bones with them. They're instant friends taking care of my kids, interested in life, they are just so darn wonderful!
And that was our wonderful and short Utah trip!
Friday, September 8, 2017
A weekend in Montana
The Monday before labor day rolled around Casey informs me that the entire office has chosen to take off the Friday before Labor Day so he's forced to take it off to. In hopes of not wasting a 4 day weekend, we thought it a bright idea to invite ourselves up to Montana and visit Casey's two uncles and their families who love up there. Let me tell you, they are the most wonderful families, both having so many qualities that I want implement in my own family or even us as parents. We had such a fabulous time!
We drove up Thursday night arriving half past midnight. Since the boys essentially slept the whole 6 hours up there, getting them back to sleep was rough business! Ha. I don't think the twins truly fell asleep until like 2 and from what I heard from Casey, Max didn't fall asleep until like 3, even being caught eating a tube of toothpaste. That kid and sneaking the toothpaste! I don't get it!
Friday was wonderful, we just sat around and talked with the family in the morning, met their HUGE bunnies in the backyard, rode bikes in the front yard, played with squirt guns, a neighbor boy brought my boys tiny frogs to play with, walked Jacob and Chandler to school, went to a huge park that had a creek and big playground to play on (and someone had their ferret on a leash, weirdo, but the kids were overly entertained). The older kids got back from school and my boys were thoroughly happy and entertained. Lexi, Carissa, Chandler, and Jacob are such fantastic kids. How in the world do you raise such sweet, loving, kind, obedient children!?!?!?! sure they probably have their imperfections but overall those are for sure the cream of the crop. They were so sweet to my kids.
Friday night all the family in Montana came over including Janae and her baby. We played 9 square, ate delicious homemade lasagna, it was just a fabulous evening laughing and talking with them all. I can't even remember the conversations I just remember the feelings of all love and happiness coming from them all. Unfortunately the whole weekend we were there, the state of Montana was covered in fires so the skies were so smokey and outside even smelt like a campfire at times.
Saturday morning we woke up decently early and I went and took pictures of Lance and Malinda's family! Their pictures turned out so fabulous, if I do say so myself, and I think they were really happy with them. By the end of the photo shoot the kids were actually WANTING to take more pictures and saying how fun it was! How awesome is that!
Maxson learned how to ride their little motorcycle that fit him perfectly, it seriously brought tears to my eyes teaching my boy how to ride a motorcycle like his mama. Sharing a hobby that brings me so much joy with my child and seeing him enjoy it so much was just so so fabulous. Max would have ridden that motorcycle all day I tell ya; along with Chandler and Jacob he just kept following and following them endlessly! Casey and I also rode Lance's bike, it's a 150cc I think, and it was great to be back on the bike shifting gears up and down the street, racing Max, and even more, taking the twins on rides, who of course LOVED it. Quinn said he didn't like going fast but it was just such a stinking blast. I want more!!!!!
We did a quick but wonderful trip to the tempe with Lance and Malinda while their kids watched our kids. We did dealings and it was very special to be in the room together with them. Power couple right there most definitely.
Sunday we went to church, all the helping hands around us was wonderful. Sweet Malinda stayed in nursery with my kids and even took Easton the whole time. It was great to be edified! Quinn informed us after church that he hates nursery. It was the funniest moment. When we told him that in Primary next year you won't get snacks he said "I hate snacks!" He is the stinking cutest. Always telling us stuff he doesn't like lol.
After church we went over to Kert and Catherine's and hung out there all evening snacking on a delicious taco bar all night long. Catherine had the most darling display of pineapples all over her home, we went on a hunt counting and there was like 58 or something. So cute. Love that woman. The boys were in heaven playing with all the weapons, legos, and Connor's cars. Bless that boy for sharing, ha. Love learning from them all, old and young.
Monday we slept in, all super tired from the night before, had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage, packed up the car and sweet Malinda began giving us so much of Jacobs stuff he no longer uses or fits. it was fantastic. Clothes galore, toys, a bike and best of all the beloved motorcycle! Max couldn't believe his eyes and was oh so so so happy! It was super sweet of them. We're lucky it fit in our car, ha! Them mini vans sure can hold a lot!
We met all the Christensens over at a little lake with kayaks galore and did a little kayaking trip with the kids, it was a perfect activity for us all and really really fun. I love that it doesn't seem as if these families are continually on their phones, they connect with each other and are genuinely interested in being with one another and caring for each others needs. Their positive, centered in the gospel, serve one another endlessly, honest in all their doings, and FUN to be around, but real people with imperfections. I hope to be like so many of them after getting to spend 4 days with their great families.
We left back for home stopping in Cody for a couple hours to visit Josh George and their family and then back home!
Montana, we will definitely come visit you again!
We drove up Thursday night arriving half past midnight. Since the boys essentially slept the whole 6 hours up there, getting them back to sleep was rough business! Ha. I don't think the twins truly fell asleep until like 2 and from what I heard from Casey, Max didn't fall asleep until like 3, even being caught eating a tube of toothpaste. That kid and sneaking the toothpaste! I don't get it!
Friday was wonderful, we just sat around and talked with the family in the morning, met their HUGE bunnies in the backyard, rode bikes in the front yard, played with squirt guns, a neighbor boy brought my boys tiny frogs to play with, walked Jacob and Chandler to school, went to a huge park that had a creek and big playground to play on (and someone had their ferret on a leash, weirdo, but the kids were overly entertained). The older kids got back from school and my boys were thoroughly happy and entertained. Lexi, Carissa, Chandler, and Jacob are such fantastic kids. How in the world do you raise such sweet, loving, kind, obedient children!?!?!?! sure they probably have their imperfections but overall those are for sure the cream of the crop. They were so sweet to my kids.
Friday night all the family in Montana came over including Janae and her baby. We played 9 square, ate delicious homemade lasagna, it was just a fabulous evening laughing and talking with them all. I can't even remember the conversations I just remember the feelings of all love and happiness coming from them all. Unfortunately the whole weekend we were there, the state of Montana was covered in fires so the skies were so smokey and outside even smelt like a campfire at times.
Saturday morning we woke up decently early and I went and took pictures of Lance and Malinda's family! Their pictures turned out so fabulous, if I do say so myself, and I think they were really happy with them. By the end of the photo shoot the kids were actually WANTING to take more pictures and saying how fun it was! How awesome is that!
Maxson learned how to ride their little motorcycle that fit him perfectly, it seriously brought tears to my eyes teaching my boy how to ride a motorcycle like his mama. Sharing a hobby that brings me so much joy with my child and seeing him enjoy it so much was just so so fabulous. Max would have ridden that motorcycle all day I tell ya; along with Chandler and Jacob he just kept following and following them endlessly! Casey and I also rode Lance's bike, it's a 150cc I think, and it was great to be back on the bike shifting gears up and down the street, racing Max, and even more, taking the twins on rides, who of course LOVED it. Quinn said he didn't like going fast but it was just such a stinking blast. I want more!!!!!
We did a quick but wonderful trip to the tempe with Lance and Malinda while their kids watched our kids. We did dealings and it was very special to be in the room together with them. Power couple right there most definitely.
Sunday we went to church, all the helping hands around us was wonderful. Sweet Malinda stayed in nursery with my kids and even took Easton the whole time. It was great to be edified! Quinn informed us after church that he hates nursery. It was the funniest moment. When we told him that in Primary next year you won't get snacks he said "I hate snacks!" He is the stinking cutest. Always telling us stuff he doesn't like lol.
After church we went over to Kert and Catherine's and hung out there all evening snacking on a delicious taco bar all night long. Catherine had the most darling display of pineapples all over her home, we went on a hunt counting and there was like 58 or something. So cute. Love that woman. The boys were in heaven playing with all the weapons, legos, and Connor's cars. Bless that boy for sharing, ha. Love learning from them all, old and young.
Monday we slept in, all super tired from the night before, had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage, packed up the car and sweet Malinda began giving us so much of Jacobs stuff he no longer uses or fits. it was fantastic. Clothes galore, toys, a bike and best of all the beloved motorcycle! Max couldn't believe his eyes and was oh so so so happy! It was super sweet of them. We're lucky it fit in our car, ha! Them mini vans sure can hold a lot!
We met all the Christensens over at a little lake with kayaks galore and did a little kayaking trip with the kids, it was a perfect activity for us all and really really fun. I love that it doesn't seem as if these families are continually on their phones, they connect with each other and are genuinely interested in being with one another and caring for each others needs. Their positive, centered in the gospel, serve one another endlessly, honest in all their doings, and FUN to be around, but real people with imperfections. I hope to be like so many of them after getting to spend 4 days with their great families.
We left back for home stopping in Cody for a couple hours to visit Josh George and their family and then back home!
Montana, we will definitely come visit you again!
Monday, August 28, 2017
Easton at 8 months
Crawls up the stairs speedy fast and smiles at you knowing he's just done something awesome
-loves pushing the push walking toy around. I think he's going to be my earliest walker! we shall see
-is so constantly entertained my the big brothers. just crawls to where they are and watches them
-doesn't try super hard to go outside if there's a step, bless that child!
-totally prefers food on my plate than they baby food I give him
-sleeping awesome! at a little over 8 months he slept a straight 10 hours, it was glorious!
- i don't really care how well he naps, bc if he's up, he's up! I got other kids awake too so what's one more! but usually 1-2 long naps, 1-2 short naps
-got his first tooth while we were in california! maybe that explained his crabbiness. so his first tooth came in at 7 1/2 months! 2 weeks later the next one came in!
-he does the loudest breathiest exhales to get attention or breathes really hard through his nose like a pig, it's my favorite.
-he's into the alligator roll during all diaper changes and clothing changes
-walks along all sorts of furniture
-I just want to eat him, those cute cheeks, the rubber band like fat rolls on his arms and legs, i love him so much it hurts!
His brothers love him too! sometimes too much!
-loves pushing the push walking toy around. I think he's going to be my earliest walker! we shall see
-is so constantly entertained my the big brothers. just crawls to where they are and watches them
-doesn't try super hard to go outside if there's a step, bless that child!
-totally prefers food on my plate than they baby food I give him
-sleeping awesome! at a little over 8 months he slept a straight 10 hours, it was glorious!
- i don't really care how well he naps, bc if he's up, he's up! I got other kids awake too so what's one more! but usually 1-2 long naps, 1-2 short naps
-got his first tooth while we were in california! maybe that explained his crabbiness. so his first tooth came in at 7 1/2 months! 2 weeks later the next one came in!
-he does the loudest breathiest exhales to get attention or breathes really hard through his nose like a pig, it's my favorite.
-he's into the alligator roll during all diaper changes and clothing changes
-walks along all sorts of furniture
-I just want to eat him, those cute cheeks, the rubber band like fat rolls on his arms and legs, i love him so much it hurts!
Bryson and Quinn: 2 tornados in a pod
I was looking back through posts from a year ago back when Max was newly 3, and reading about him, oh my lanta! That boy was wild and mischievous and hard! And you know what, THE TWINS ARE SO JUST LIKE MAXSON! EXCEPT I HAVE TWO!
The difference now is that I don't necessarily know who did what mess, who contributed to all, some or none of it, who's lying, who started it. See how much harder it is?
Overall i think Bryson is the biggest instigator/worst aggravator. He starts it and others join in. Or when Max just watches it unfold in front of him and doesn't do anything to stop it! Come on man! Throw me a bone!
Here is a SMALL FRACTION of some of the terrible things the twins have done:
The difference now is that I don't necessarily know who did what mess, who contributed to all, some or none of it, who's lying, who started it. See how much harder it is?
Overall i think Bryson is the biggest instigator/worst aggravator. He starts it and others join in. Or when Max just watches it unfold in front of him and doesn't do anything to stop it! Come on man! Throw me a bone!
Here is a SMALL FRACTION of some of the terrible things the twins have done:
-2 monopoly boxes torn apart pieces everywhere in their room, 4 pee spots in room, poop on bed blankets carpet walls and down the vent!!!
-Chinese noodles all over the stove tops burners
-Nail polish on oven TOTALY dumped out, 2 bottles of essential oils dumped everywhere
-q tips dumped on stairs and another day in bathroom
-water dumped ALL OVER the loft area upstairs, probably 30 spots of large bowls of water
-gal of of milk spilled everywhere so one could poor themselves a small cup of milk
-a trail of poop from the bathroom, through the hall, up the stairs and all the way to the bedroom
-30 eggs smashed all over the floor while I was sleeping and Casey going to the bathroom
-lotion squirted all over the floor
-sewing pins all pulled out of pin cushion
-gallon milk and vanilla creamer all over kitchen floor and playroom carpet
-2 large Costco sized containers of seasoning spilt everywhere
-Bryson always plays in the sink and makes huge messes everywhere
-large bottle of conditioner and kids soap dumped out into the bath tub
-twins took out ALL the clean clothes from their drawer, put them in the bath tub, and then plopped them on the floor of the bathroom. Walked into a lake of water in the bath tub
-so much writing on walls, so so much
-so many spillings of milk
-milk and heavy cream spilt all over the family room and playroom in an attempt to pour a small sippie cup.
-played with bananas, packing them in their backpacks for a trip, forgot about the bananas and as we were cleaning up the playroom they got dumped out over all the toys and stunk so so bad.
I can promise you, this is a very small list of all the terrible messes they have done. Overall I'd say it's been lessening over the past couple months. Their playful imagination has increased, summer has helped so they can spend energy outside playing and running instead of concentrating it on how gravity works inside the house.
Quinn gives the best scowl face. When he's doing super hard things and I cheer him on and say "you're doing awesome" or "you this! you're ok!", if he's mad he'll respond "i'm not awesome! i'm not ok! I don't got this!" He is so stinking funny.
Bryson is an absolute liar. Once Casey had given him chocolate, it was still in his mouth and he was trying to convince Casey that he didn't get a chocolate! He just wanted "one more!" he's the best negotiator. Always saying one more! or one minute!
When you give the twins 2 choices, they often just make up a third choice and choose that:
"Bryson do you want apples or a banana?"
"uhhhhhhh, candy" tornadoes
I don't know if they'll ever stop giving me a run for my money. Truly, because they have each other I think they'll forever be mischievous. I love them oh so stinking much though!
Is this not the cutest series of them loving each other? They are best friends!
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Easton at 7 months
He's a fast crawler! Follows the family wherever we go. He started super legit crying right after 6 months, he's the best.
Pulls himself up to standing position.
LOVES mom, to the point of hardcore mama's boy and cries when I give him to other people at first or if someone else is holding him and he sees me: tears. Ha, man that baby!
He's a big eater. Seriously eats so much! Nurses, sometimes takes more bottle, and then baby food and lots of snacking in between. He's such a darling baby!
HIs giggles can get out of control with Max and it's so darling. he loves giving a attention to his brothers when they're interested in him.
He definitely loves swimming. We just brought him in my mom's pool this week and he's ALL for it. Granted it's nice and comfortably temperatures water but he loves spashing and being in it always trying to crawl out of the house if people are in there swimming.
One time when he was really upset while being watched by Logan, he found my nursing cover and that comforted him, ha. Sweet/silly boy.
Great sleeper taking 2-3 naps a day and wakes up once at night, I really need to kick that habit.
Learning how to give kisses.
I'm still so overly obsessed with my cute little baby.😍
Pulls himself up to standing position.
LOVES mom, to the point of hardcore mama's boy and cries when I give him to other people at first or if someone else is holding him and he sees me: tears. Ha, man that baby!
He's a big eater. Seriously eats so much! Nurses, sometimes takes more bottle, and then baby food and lots of snacking in between. He's such a darling baby!
HIs giggles can get out of control with Max and it's so darling. he loves giving a attention to his brothers when they're interested in him.
He definitely loves swimming. We just brought him in my mom's pool this week and he's ALL for it. Granted it's nice and comfortably temperatures water but he loves spashing and being in it always trying to crawl out of the house if people are in there swimming.
One time when he was really upset while being watched by Logan, he found my nursing cover and that comforted him, ha. Sweet/silly boy.
Great sleeper taking 2-3 naps a day and wakes up once at night, I really need to kick that habit.
Learning how to give kisses.
I'm still so overly obsessed with my cute little baby.😍
Thursday, June 22, 2017
An update on the Cutler crew. (Easton 6 months)
Maxson is super adorbs. He is 4 1/2. An awesome helper with Easton, always making Easton laugh, soothing him when he cries, carrying him places when he feels Easton is begin forgotten (up the stairs, cue head shake). He's always telling Easton he's such a cute baby and playing with him, I love their interaction. He loves the game memory, definitely his favorite right now, and he legitimately beats me like every time. He's been bomb.com at swimming recently. All the month of May we practiced swimming with the boys at the rec center and then in June swim lessons started. What a dramatic improvement. He can get from point A to B to problem swimming under water. He needs to work on bigger arms and to keep kicking his legs while he tries to take a breath! He pretty much refused and still does refuse to do any back exercises with me but will do them just fantastically for his teachers. He's all things sports and fun and courage. Soccer was his jam and he absolutely rocked it. Top scorer on his team and never stopped running after the ball and being aggressive. He has a "writing" book I got him (Preschool workbook that's nearly 400 pages, awesome!) and he loves to do it. His word articulation is improving. He is willing to practice a little more with me and not get so intensely frustrated and I'm proud of him. His biggest stumbling blocks are th, l, s, and r. R is the only one he kind of truly can't say well yet, the other sounds he can do when he slows the word down and thinks about it, he just doesn't when talking normally ha. He never takes naps anymore, just a movie in the afternoon. He's a very goal and end result oriented little boy. The follow through on doing something you told him is very important. He loves picture lists and marking everything off and going through all the steps. He loves to look at the calendar to see what day it is and what is coming up in our events. He can be so tenderhearted to his brothers at times. He has an innate protective personality and is so very friendly with the twins, playing with them, teaching them, being "on their team", it's really sweet to watch them. I love him to death and tell him all the time how much I love him and how proud I am of him, because I really really am.
Bryson is hilarious. I feel like he is the one who starts the giggle fests with his brothers and can start the other 2 laughing in an instant. His peeing his pants plague is finally coming to a close I think. He went through a good month long or more phase of just continual peeing his pants when we were at home but is finally getting over it. Mark my words, Bryson is going to be my ultra mole-y child. Like Scott status I bet. He was born with the one just under his right eye and now at 2 1/2 years old has at least 5 I have noticed, poor thing. Bryson especially often comes and squeezes in the rocking chair with me while I nurse Easton. Bryson is the child who sleeps in the longest by 10-30 min. It's interesting, they're all in the same room but they don't wake each other up when they wake up. When Bryson gets super excited he jumps up and down on two feet like teenage girls do at boy band concerts, he has so much excitement for life at times.
Quinn is obsessed with milk. Like super obsessed and gets super mad if you try putting it in a cup. I know there are worse things but I'm still not a fan of it. Quinn is awesome at his strider bike. He cruises on that thing like no ones business. He has declared the pink one to be his. I would say Quinn is more of the emotional one of the two. He probably gets put in time out more for excessive crying, ha. He does this funny thing where he sticks out his bottom jaw, elongates his face as much as possible and with a frowny face talks to you, so funny. Quinn has this darling way of questioning new things, his nose and eyes get all scrunchy as he asks all these questions so unsure of it all, so so cute. Quinn especially loves to tell people "I'm not happy with you!" when he's mad about something or someone. It's adorable. That's what I say to them when I'm super upset so it's cute that he uses it too and I know he means it when he says it but things he says it about is just funny and cute and small.
Together the twins are in the WHY phase. Like I hear why probably close to 1000 times a day, I really think I'm serious. You can count on them saying why over a certain subject at least 4 times until they are satisfied. They are both obsessed with their "nuh-nights", they're stuffed animals they go to bed with. They are obsessed with shoes, and all my friends know it. They makes a mess of Casey and my shoes all day everyday, so stinking annoying but adorable too. Grammy's house, friends house, anytime they can get their hands on adult shoes to wear they're stoked. I should take them each individually to a shoe store, ha. They are definitely clingy. Not fans of new places for sure and cling to my legs and beg and cry for me if i try to leave them. Still continually want me to hold them asking me to sit on the couch. They both maul Easton at various points in the day, they just love him but try to put their arm around him while he's on his tummy on the ground, ha. We're working on colors with them both and they're finally getting it consistently! So proud of them!
Easton is just the sweetest angel baby. Of course he cries and gets upset at times when he's more hungry than what i gave him or bored or tired but so often I'll be in the kitchen and after 20 minutes think "where's the baby!" no big deal, just scooting his way around watching everyone happy as can be. He finds so much entertainment in hose big brothers. When they're not around he does a lot more squawking for attention, ha. At 6 months old he can get from A to B just about whenever he wants. Just stick his bum in the air, pulls his feet up and then pushes off them. He's so darn adorable. Eating more solids food whenever I have time to remember. Loves chomping on veggies straws. Loves his pinkie, is a pretty great sleeper, 3-4 naps a day depending if he's in his car seat or not being lugged around all day, ha. Pretty great sleeper at night, often sleeps from 8-5, nurses once more and then goes back to sleep for an hour to hour and a half. We've had him cry it out a few times to get past the midnight and 3 am feeding. He never just did it naturally so much so sometime after 5months we did and am so happy that we did. Is always super happy and adorable in the mornings; batting at our faces, making all sorts of adorable sounds, and just being overall the best thing to wake up to. Everyone loves Easton oh so much! He's also super obsessed with me. I personally would say he gets the biggest smiles for me when someone else is holding him and he finally gets eye contact with me, ha.
20 lb 90 something %ile
28 in 90 something %ile
Casey is doing great at work, continually improving and enjoying what he does. I love when he comes home with stories of the day. He's such a hard worked for our family, I admire him so much. He so very diligent at getting things done right away. A return in the mail? Boom he's at UPS. Insurance stuff? Boom he calls that second. Something on the house or cars or toys needs fixing. Boom it's done. Just today, he came home at lunch and mowed the lawn in his work clothes because it needed to be done, ha. I love spending time with him. Sometimes I still can't believe he's mine! And that my best friends says I'm his best friend too! Sounds corny, but it's the simplicity of knowing each other is the top human in their life, ha. He has softball once a week which he loves. Playing with a rough crowd of Wyoming high school friends but he does fabulous. He serves in the Elders quorum presidency and is so diligent at always going to everything he 's needed to be at. He always keeps our supply of night time cereal stocked and will always share the crappy but delicious foo the buys with me and never complains that I don't buy them for him, I just eat his stash. He's so loyal and helpful to his family members, I love it.
As for myself. The children and house seem to be my life and what consumes me all day everyday. The house is always a disaster and I feel like I'm always telling the kids "ok, let's clean up!" but it just get so messy so fast! I love making new and delicious dinners for the family but summer has consumed me with having fun outside and going places so that's kind of been put on the back burner. I try to take the kids to as many fun things I can in the summer as possible. Because our summers are short lived you've gotta go crazy when they come! Lakes, splash pads, pools, slip n slides, parks with friends, walks, it's a go go go kind of summer life! I've always wanted to be a "fun young mom" one with energy to play with their kids and be apart of the fun. So when we got to the lake I get in and play games (not as much as Casey, but I'm still like the only mom out there!), the slip n slide, I'm practically the only mom going down, ha, but I also have to be apart of all this fun stuff or my timid twins wouldn't do it at all. My children bring me so much joy, I LOVE their cuddles, I love the quiet moments I get with each of them. I love when I have the patience to be patient and explain them about life and disappointments and the earth around them and relationships and education I love watching them learn! I love being a mom. It's tough work but an overall awesome gig with the cutest kids ever. Beyond motherhood I've made some awesome friends here in Rock Springs, ones I can really connect with and relate to and get advice from. We're constantly texting to go do stuff together and date nights, it's nice to have your group. And I also organized a salad swap with friends. There's a total of 10 of us and it's the best ever. I get a fresh salad everyday for lunch from a friend but just make 10 for my friends on Monday and deliver them! I actually make an additional 5 to get extra salads for Casey too, ha.
I love this life of mine, these kids, that husband. It's far from perfect but it's wonderful and beautiful. There are times when we stand in a circle put our hands in and yell "1, 2, 3, go Cutlers!" it's a great time of life.
Bryson is hilarious. I feel like he is the one who starts the giggle fests with his brothers and can start the other 2 laughing in an instant. His peeing his pants plague is finally coming to a close I think. He went through a good month long or more phase of just continual peeing his pants when we were at home but is finally getting over it. Mark my words, Bryson is going to be my ultra mole-y child. Like Scott status I bet. He was born with the one just under his right eye and now at 2 1/2 years old has at least 5 I have noticed, poor thing. Bryson especially often comes and squeezes in the rocking chair with me while I nurse Easton. Bryson is the child who sleeps in the longest by 10-30 min. It's interesting, they're all in the same room but they don't wake each other up when they wake up. When Bryson gets super excited he jumps up and down on two feet like teenage girls do at boy band concerts, he has so much excitement for life at times.
Quinn is obsessed with milk. Like super obsessed and gets super mad if you try putting it in a cup. I know there are worse things but I'm still not a fan of it. Quinn is awesome at his strider bike. He cruises on that thing like no ones business. He has declared the pink one to be his. I would say Quinn is more of the emotional one of the two. He probably gets put in time out more for excessive crying, ha. He does this funny thing where he sticks out his bottom jaw, elongates his face as much as possible and with a frowny face talks to you, so funny. Quinn has this darling way of questioning new things, his nose and eyes get all scrunchy as he asks all these questions so unsure of it all, so so cute. Quinn especially loves to tell people "I'm not happy with you!" when he's mad about something or someone. It's adorable. That's what I say to them when I'm super upset so it's cute that he uses it too and I know he means it when he says it but things he says it about is just funny and cute and small.
Together the twins are in the WHY phase. Like I hear why probably close to 1000 times a day, I really think I'm serious. You can count on them saying why over a certain subject at least 4 times until they are satisfied. They are both obsessed with their "nuh-nights", they're stuffed animals they go to bed with. They are obsessed with shoes, and all my friends know it. They makes a mess of Casey and my shoes all day everyday, so stinking annoying but adorable too. Grammy's house, friends house, anytime they can get their hands on adult shoes to wear they're stoked. I should take them each individually to a shoe store, ha. They are definitely clingy. Not fans of new places for sure and cling to my legs and beg and cry for me if i try to leave them. Still continually want me to hold them asking me to sit on the couch. They both maul Easton at various points in the day, they just love him but try to put their arm around him while he's on his tummy on the ground, ha. We're working on colors with them both and they're finally getting it consistently! So proud of them!
Easton is just the sweetest angel baby. Of course he cries and gets upset at times when he's more hungry than what i gave him or bored or tired but so often I'll be in the kitchen and after 20 minutes think "where's the baby!" no big deal, just scooting his way around watching everyone happy as can be. He finds so much entertainment in hose big brothers. When they're not around he does a lot more squawking for attention, ha. At 6 months old he can get from A to B just about whenever he wants. Just stick his bum in the air, pulls his feet up and then pushes off them. He's so darn adorable. Eating more solids food whenever I have time to remember. Loves chomping on veggies straws. Loves his pinkie, is a pretty great sleeper, 3-4 naps a day depending if he's in his car seat or not being lugged around all day, ha. Pretty great sleeper at night, often sleeps from 8-5, nurses once more and then goes back to sleep for an hour to hour and a half. We've had him cry it out a few times to get past the midnight and 3 am feeding. He never just did it naturally so much so sometime after 5months we did and am so happy that we did. Is always super happy and adorable in the mornings; batting at our faces, making all sorts of adorable sounds, and just being overall the best thing to wake up to. Everyone loves Easton oh so much! He's also super obsessed with me. I personally would say he gets the biggest smiles for me when someone else is holding him and he finally gets eye contact with me, ha.
20 lb 90 something %ile
28 in 90 something %ile
Casey is doing great at work, continually improving and enjoying what he does. I love when he comes home with stories of the day. He's such a hard worked for our family, I admire him so much. He so very diligent at getting things done right away. A return in the mail? Boom he's at UPS. Insurance stuff? Boom he calls that second. Something on the house or cars or toys needs fixing. Boom it's done. Just today, he came home at lunch and mowed the lawn in his work clothes because it needed to be done, ha. I love spending time with him. Sometimes I still can't believe he's mine! And that my best friends says I'm his best friend too! Sounds corny, but it's the simplicity of knowing each other is the top human in their life, ha. He has softball once a week which he loves. Playing with a rough crowd of Wyoming high school friends but he does fabulous. He serves in the Elders quorum presidency and is so diligent at always going to everything he 's needed to be at. He always keeps our supply of night time cereal stocked and will always share the crappy but delicious foo the buys with me and never complains that I don't buy them for him, I just eat his stash. He's so loyal and helpful to his family members, I love it.
As for myself. The children and house seem to be my life and what consumes me all day everyday. The house is always a disaster and I feel like I'm always telling the kids "ok, let's clean up!" but it just get so messy so fast! I love making new and delicious dinners for the family but summer has consumed me with having fun outside and going places so that's kind of been put on the back burner. I try to take the kids to as many fun things I can in the summer as possible. Because our summers are short lived you've gotta go crazy when they come! Lakes, splash pads, pools, slip n slides, parks with friends, walks, it's a go go go kind of summer life! I've always wanted to be a "fun young mom" one with energy to play with their kids and be apart of the fun. So when we got to the lake I get in and play games (not as much as Casey, but I'm still like the only mom out there!), the slip n slide, I'm practically the only mom going down, ha, but I also have to be apart of all this fun stuff or my timid twins wouldn't do it at all. My children bring me so much joy, I LOVE their cuddles, I love the quiet moments I get with each of them. I love when I have the patience to be patient and explain them about life and disappointments and the earth around them and relationships and education I love watching them learn! I love being a mom. It's tough work but an overall awesome gig with the cutest kids ever. Beyond motherhood I've made some awesome friends here in Rock Springs, ones I can really connect with and relate to and get advice from. We're constantly texting to go do stuff together and date nights, it's nice to have your group. And I also organized a salad swap with friends. There's a total of 10 of us and it's the best ever. I get a fresh salad everyday for lunch from a friend but just make 10 for my friends on Monday and deliver them! I actually make an additional 5 to get extra salads for Casey too, ha.
I love this life of mine, these kids, that husband. It's far from perfect but it's wonderful and beautiful. There are times when we stand in a circle put our hands in and yell "1, 2, 3, go Cutlers!" it's a great time of life.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
The start of swim lessons
We've put our kids in their first official swim lessons. BOOM. Max 4 1/2, twins 2 1/2 (i keep kind of telling the twins they're 3 because you're supposed to be 3 for swim lessons, sue me/guilty wide eyes look). They're all in the same class for 30 minutes.
For the past month we get a pass to the rec center and took the kids swimming twice a week to get them acclimated to the water and having fun with us. Max was hesitant at first with us but by the end of the 4 weeks, was swimming on his own for like 10 seconds under the water with arms, kicking, and taking breaths, he's a rock star. The dumb rec center made us keep floaties on the twins at all times because they're stupid like that (some dumb rule about non swimmers out numbering adults, that was only the first of our complaints). They were a little slower to feel totally free in the water, especially without their floaties, not fans of putting their faces in the water but still had lots of fun kicking splashing and jumping in.
So come the first day of swim lessons, we'd been talking to them about it for weeks, everyone is very excited. Everyone gets in the pool and is super happy and excited. The twins are yelling "hi mommy and daddy!" proud to be showing off they're in swim lessons and then after about 7 minutes, THE TEARS. Mommy and daddy is all they wanted. They wanted out NOW. Bryson had to pee now (never peed) came back and then he had to poop no (never ended up pooping either) tears and more tears from the twins. Quinn stopped crying after about 10 minutes when he was doing an excercies with the teacher and realized he CAN blow bubbles and get the ring in the water! A big smile came across his face and he totally changed and was happy to do all the drills with her! But then they got out of the pool and it was back to tears when they had to jump to the teacher. So overall I'd say the twins cried for about 20 of the 30 minutes, ha. I was definitely doubting my putting them in swim lessons earlier than the age requirement, ugh, but I also know that this is often what happens with first time swim lessons,
And then there's Max, just a total rock star. Doing everything they ask so happy, big smiles, looking for us to wave to all the time. He's also 2 years older than the twins, ha, but he just did so so good.
So at home we give them skittles for how well they did: Max 8 (I just chose a larger random number) and then with the twins I enumerated all the things they DID do during swim lessons. They reassured me that next time they weren't going to cry and they loved swim lessons.
FAST FORWARD to the next swim lesson. Lots of talking before hand prepping them with teachers names, how fun it will be, how brave they will be, and how awesome it will all be, and that if no one cries we get ICE CREAM. Swim lessons come and BOOM all 3 are rockstars! No tears! No whining for mom and dad. Eager for their turns. Willing to do more in the lessons than they have for mom and dad. I was just so intensely proud of them all! They cheered each other on, they were just so awesome! Each time the teacher would take them for their part Casey and I would watch with excitement and see how awesome they did when asked to do each drill, so amazed at the difference from the last lesson!
At the end they went to jump off the diving board. Max got up no problem and just jumped! Quinn go up with excitement and slowly walked forward, half way forward realizing "um, actually not so sure about this" but then the lifeguard helped him forward and gently put him in the pool he did it! And then Bryson, again eager as the others, walked forward and halfway across the diving board was like "uh uh, I am NOT doing this! And you could see his little legs trembling and the fear fully overcome him, ha. He turned around and they let him jump off the edge, he was very proud of himself and so was I:)
Once swimming lessons got over we had a Cutler huddle to tell them how awesome they did and they were quick to remind me "they get ice cream!!!!!!" So ice cream we went! (actually we did stop at Cafe rio since no one had eaten dinner yet, ha) But they were so excited for their ice cream and were all so cute eating it.
Man I love these kids of mine!
For the past month we get a pass to the rec center and took the kids swimming twice a week to get them acclimated to the water and having fun with us. Max was hesitant at first with us but by the end of the 4 weeks, was swimming on his own for like 10 seconds under the water with arms, kicking, and taking breaths, he's a rock star. The dumb rec center made us keep floaties on the twins at all times because they're stupid like that (some dumb rule about non swimmers out numbering adults, that was only the first of our complaints). They were a little slower to feel totally free in the water, especially without their floaties, not fans of putting their faces in the water but still had lots of fun kicking splashing and jumping in.
So come the first day of swim lessons, we'd been talking to them about it for weeks, everyone is very excited. Everyone gets in the pool and is super happy and excited. The twins are yelling "hi mommy and daddy!" proud to be showing off they're in swim lessons and then after about 7 minutes, THE TEARS. Mommy and daddy is all they wanted. They wanted out NOW. Bryson had to pee now (never peed) came back and then he had to poop no (never ended up pooping either) tears and more tears from the twins. Quinn stopped crying after about 10 minutes when he was doing an excercies with the teacher and realized he CAN blow bubbles and get the ring in the water! A big smile came across his face and he totally changed and was happy to do all the drills with her! But then they got out of the pool and it was back to tears when they had to jump to the teacher. So overall I'd say the twins cried for about 20 of the 30 minutes, ha. I was definitely doubting my putting them in swim lessons earlier than the age requirement, ugh, but I also know that this is often what happens with first time swim lessons,
And then there's Max, just a total rock star. Doing everything they ask so happy, big smiles, looking for us to wave to all the time. He's also 2 years older than the twins, ha, but he just did so so good.
So at home we give them skittles for how well they did: Max 8 (I just chose a larger random number) and then with the twins I enumerated all the things they DID do during swim lessons. They reassured me that next time they weren't going to cry and they loved swim lessons.
FAST FORWARD to the next swim lesson. Lots of talking before hand prepping them with teachers names, how fun it will be, how brave they will be, and how awesome it will all be, and that if no one cries we get ICE CREAM. Swim lessons come and BOOM all 3 are rockstars! No tears! No whining for mom and dad. Eager for their turns. Willing to do more in the lessons than they have for mom and dad. I was just so intensely proud of them all! They cheered each other on, they were just so awesome! Each time the teacher would take them for their part Casey and I would watch with excitement and see how awesome they did when asked to do each drill, so amazed at the difference from the last lesson!
At the end they went to jump off the diving board. Max got up no problem and just jumped! Quinn go up with excitement and slowly walked forward, half way forward realizing "um, actually not so sure about this" but then the lifeguard helped him forward and gently put him in the pool he did it! And then Bryson, again eager as the others, walked forward and halfway across the diving board was like "uh uh, I am NOT doing this! And you could see his little legs trembling and the fear fully overcome him, ha. He turned around and they let him jump off the edge, he was very proud of himself and so was I:)
Once swimming lessons got over we had a Cutler huddle to tell them how awesome they did and they were quick to remind me "they get ice cream!!!!!!" So ice cream we went! (actually we did stop at Cafe rio since no one had eaten dinner yet, ha) But they were so excited for their ice cream and were all so cute eating it.
Man I love these kids of mine!
Monday, June 5, 2017
Easton at 5 months
Easton at 5 months
-Definitely the earliest boy to sit! Right before 5 months he was like "mom, I got this".
-He loves mama. love love loves.
-We started some table foods right around 5m months with him, he's just so eager to eat! Always lunging forward at cups, plates, bowls, and spoons, so I just did it!
-Set up a crib in his own room, sleeps much better for naps. Had him cry a little more in the night since he was waking up every 3 hours or less! Got him through shaking off that first night time feeding, I need to just push through and get him completely off the next feeding too. It really does only take a couple nights, white noise in our room so we don't hear him and we can do anything!
-Everything in his mouth these days, really is loving the baby toys lately
-Loves the exersaucer, he can't get enough of it playing with all those toys
-He really loves Max, gets big big smiles when Max plays with him. The twins, a little less. He tenses up when they try to squeeze and hug and love him because they're just so rough!
-He's doing a new happy yell scream to just talk and make noise, it's adorable.
-Still taking him on all our dates because of nursing
-Rolling everywhere
-Hardcore inching forward with his little legs and bum in the air. When he wants something he goes after it!
-Staying asleep in his carseat when transferring him from the car to the house has decreased to an intensely low success level. If I can, I'll leave him in the car while we keep doing our thing (like leave him in the car with the door open while we play in the front yard or work in the garage right around him, also we live in Wyoming where it's gorgeous weather right now.)
-He sleeps like 10-6ish. He definitely has room to elongate his night time sleep, but 4th kid, we're not fighting it
-Definitely the earliest boy to sit! Right before 5 months he was like "mom, I got this".
-He loves mama. love love loves.
-We started some table foods right around 5m months with him, he's just so eager to eat! Always lunging forward at cups, plates, bowls, and spoons, so I just did it!
-Set up a crib in his own room, sleeps much better for naps. Had him cry a little more in the night since he was waking up every 3 hours or less! Got him through shaking off that first night time feeding, I need to just push through and get him completely off the next feeding too. It really does only take a couple nights, white noise in our room so we don't hear him and we can do anything!
-Everything in his mouth these days, really is loving the baby toys lately
-Loves the exersaucer, he can't get enough of it playing with all those toys
-He really loves Max, gets big big smiles when Max plays with him. The twins, a little less. He tenses up when they try to squeeze and hug and love him because they're just so rough!
-He's doing a new happy yell scream to just talk and make noise, it's adorable.
-Still taking him on all our dates because of nursing
-Rolling everywhere
-Hardcore inching forward with his little legs and bum in the air. When he wants something he goes after it!
-Staying asleep in his carseat when transferring him from the car to the house has decreased to an intensely low success level. If I can, I'll leave him in the car while we keep doing our thing (like leave him in the car with the door open while we play in the front yard or work in the garage right around him, also we live in Wyoming where it's gorgeous weather right now.)
-He sleeps like 10-6ish. He definitely has room to elongate his night time sleep, but 4th kid, we're not fighting it
Sunday, April 30, 2017
4 months of Baby Easton
Man, we love this baby so much!
We like to call him easy Easton because so much of the time he is so darling and easy! Fast facts because let's face it, less time these days with 4 days!!!!
-Loves watching his brothers, they are the best entertainment for him. They love him so much, they're constantly helping Easton have toys, giving him kisses, trying to bring him to me, telling me when he's crying, they just adore him I love it. And Easton adores him!
-Max loves making Easton smile and Max gets totally different types of laughs and smiles from him, I love it.
-Easton is ALWAYS looking for me. It's darling how obsessed he is with me and hilarious. I like when my kids are obsessed with me in a cute way but not a whiney way, ha
-He's rolling back to tummy, loves his exersaucer
-A terrible sleeper from 3-7, oh man that boy! He just wants to eat every hour and stay by my side or be awake and be entertained.
-Like probably all babies, he just loves to fall asleep in your arms, he's just so dang adorable.
-he gets so offended when he's staring after me in hopes eating after a nap and i don't come to him right away, actually really cute, ha, but super offended
-he comes on all our date nights, he's our permanent 3rd wheel right now, ha. But he's so great to have around, just cuddly and sweet!
-I just can't get enough of him and want to eat him all the time
-he hangs out in his bumbo and exersaucer a ton and loves laying on the ground reaching for the sesame street hanging toy
-he's constantly putting his fist in his mouth, sometimes I'm just sure it's all the way in his mouth!
-great at taking a binkie and a bottle when he's not quite full off of breastmilk. Bless that wonderful baby!
-He's so ticklish and I love it
-at his 4 month appointment he weighed 16 lb 9 oz (77%ile), my largest 4 month old child so far! And 26.25 in (89%ile)
It really is at this point I wish he would stay a baby forever!
Pictures to come when I upload them :)
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Haggered mama
This is what you look like after 2 full days of mothering 4 kids 4 and under with no adult interaction. Literally had no clue what I looked like until after I put them to bed!
Monday, January 9, 2017
my 5 guys // Easton's newborn photos
Last night I went to bed after the rest of the crew. Snow softly falling outside, piling up everywhere it could reach. A foot plus with no sign of stopping.
The house was completely dark and quiet and peaceful.
I was just sitting in bed nursing my sweet new baby.
How I love this new sweet baby so much. I fall head over heels with my babies and I forget every time. They are absolute heaven. I want to hold and cuddle and kiss him all day long. How I long to hold him again after putting them down to go to work on the house. It has been incredibly non stressful with baby number 4, I know what I'm doing and have an idea what to expect of various aspects so this time I can just purely enjoy this sweet bundle of joy, because that's truly what he is. He has brought so much love into our family these past few weeks. There were so many times I completely broke down with gargantuan tears the weeks and months before his birth questioning Heavenly Father how I could possibly handle another child when I'm barely keeping the 3 I have and myself alive through the day, why was He sending another?! And now I can see we were missing a piece of love and patience and bonding in our puzzle and Easton has brought that piece to all the members of our family. I love love love this little baby Easton like crazy.
Knowing my husband lay right next to me, happily asleep. He works so hard for our family. Stresses over keeping our family safe, well, cared for. SO often thinking of us before himself. He's a shining example of selfless so much of the time and has no clue. I just cry when I think about how lucky I am to have him. That he chose me. That my favorite person in this whole world also thinks I'm his favorite person. I don't know what I would do without him. He's my rock and my world.
Just across the hall lay my 3 sweet sleeping boys. Max and my other babies. We still call the the twins the babies, we just can't quite quit the habit. Those twins of mine make me want to cry in frustration and cry of sheer joy and love and cuteness at so many moment of the day. They are at such a tender age, so innocent, so loving, so mischievous. They bring me so much joy, I can't believe we have survived twins this far. They have been so hard at times and so much fun. They love me like I am their whole world. They have been so sweet to our new baby, they are such good boys, I hope I can be a good mom for them.
And then sweet Max in his own room next to theirs. He's such a good big brother. He's been so good to the twins, they play together, he guides them, helps them, looks out for them (and hits pushes them way too much). He can be so sensitive to the feelings of others (and so completely oblivious at times). He constantly is wanting to hold and love Easton, looking out for him when he cries, talking to him, telling me he wants to hold his "choot baby." I hope I am giving him my adequate time and attention to help him learn and grow. I can't believe how fast he's growing, slipping away from my nest with the slow pull of school beginning. He brings me so much joy, he is my first baby after all and will forever be my baby.
I have been so blessed with the most wonderful family. They are not perfect, like, at all, but, they are perfect for me. Shaping me into the woman I need to be more. Helping me forget about myself to serve others, serve like all the day long, ha, but I love them and would do anything for these 5 boys. They are my world, and to the 4 little boys Casey and myself are their world. I want to be kinder, more loving, more patient, more intentional. I want to be my best for them and savor up these days when they are completely mine with little to no outside distractions.
The house was completely dark and quiet and peaceful.
I was just sitting in bed nursing my sweet new baby.
How I love this new sweet baby so much. I fall head over heels with my babies and I forget every time. They are absolute heaven. I want to hold and cuddle and kiss him all day long. How I long to hold him again after putting them down to go to work on the house. It has been incredibly non stressful with baby number 4, I know what I'm doing and have an idea what to expect of various aspects so this time I can just purely enjoy this sweet bundle of joy, because that's truly what he is. He has brought so much love into our family these past few weeks. There were so many times I completely broke down with gargantuan tears the weeks and months before his birth questioning Heavenly Father how I could possibly handle another child when I'm barely keeping the 3 I have and myself alive through the day, why was He sending another?! And now I can see we were missing a piece of love and patience and bonding in our puzzle and Easton has brought that piece to all the members of our family. I love love love this little baby Easton like crazy.
Knowing my husband lay right next to me, happily asleep. He works so hard for our family. Stresses over keeping our family safe, well, cared for. SO often thinking of us before himself. He's a shining example of selfless so much of the time and has no clue. I just cry when I think about how lucky I am to have him. That he chose me. That my favorite person in this whole world also thinks I'm his favorite person. I don't know what I would do without him. He's my rock and my world.
Just across the hall lay my 3 sweet sleeping boys. Max and my other babies. We still call the the twins the babies, we just can't quite quit the habit. Those twins of mine make me want to cry in frustration and cry of sheer joy and love and cuteness at so many moment of the day. They are at such a tender age, so innocent, so loving, so mischievous. They bring me so much joy, I can't believe we have survived twins this far. They have been so hard at times and so much fun. They love me like I am their whole world. They have been so sweet to our new baby, they are such good boys, I hope I can be a good mom for them.
And then sweet Max in his own room next to theirs. He's such a good big brother. He's been so good to the twins, they play together, he guides them, helps them, looks out for them (and hits pushes them way too much). He can be so sensitive to the feelings of others (and so completely oblivious at times). He constantly is wanting to hold and love Easton, looking out for him when he cries, talking to him, telling me he wants to hold his "choot baby." I hope I am giving him my adequate time and attention to help him learn and grow. I can't believe how fast he's growing, slipping away from my nest with the slow pull of school beginning. He brings me so much joy, he is my first baby after all and will forever be my baby.
I have been so blessed with the most wonderful family. They are not perfect, like, at all, but, they are perfect for me. Shaping me into the woman I need to be more. Helping me forget about myself to serve others, serve like all the day long, ha, but I love them and would do anything for these 5 boys. They are my world, and to the 4 little boys Casey and myself are their world. I want to be kinder, more loving, more patient, more intentional. I want to be my best for them and savor up these days when they are completely mine with little to no outside distractions.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
The birth of baby Easton
I was quite eager to get our new baby boy in this world! Not because it was a terrible pregnancy but just excited for another little baby. With a due date of Dec 20, I was perfectly ok with being induced early to help his birthday be a little further away from Christmas and to plan for Casey and time off work. Dec 16 was the day that happened to work for us and my doctor. I was 39 weeks 3 days.
Night before snuggles. Lots of "hold you's from these two. They had no clue what was going on but on the other hand they were overly clingy that night, ha.
The morning of the 16th, Casey's mom met us at our house to watch the kids. I was so thankful I got a really good night's sleep that night knowing, "hello tired hours/days/weeks/months coming up!" We left around 6:45, Casey needed to stop at McDonald's for his hearty breakfast to get him through his exhausting day 😏. We arrived at the hospital around 7, did I mention how icy it was outside? So much ice! The car was sliding everywhere and even we doubled on some of our steps due to slipping a little on the ice. But we made it into the hospital safe and timely.
I actually love being induced, you can be totally ready with your belongings, household, child care, mental status, it's a fun, calm, exciting experience! Because my other 2 pregnancies have been inductions due to high blood pressure and they turned out just fine, I knew this electively induced delivery would go just fine too. I'd been having tons of good contractions in the previous weeks and days and knew my body would be ready for it.
We did paperwork, got the IV in (only 1 poke! and it was technically in my arm, but super close by my wrist, not as bad as it being in my hand but seriously no complaints, first try and she got it not in my hand, bless that nurse. If you remember from the twins birth they had the hardest time getting it anywhere and end up in my right hand, made life not enjoyable). We met our nurse, Amelia, who we were so lucky to have, she was my delivery nurse the whole day and postpartum nurse the next 2 days, it was so great having the same gal who knew me and everything that was going on, that is definitely a pro to a small town hospital. She asked about my birth plan and I pulled out my typed and laminated paper which read:
Around 8:15 my doctor, Dr Kattan, came in to break my water. Now that is not the normal series of events. Usually they start pitocin and then break the water awhile later. I asked him if we could break the water first to see if my body went anywhere by itself, I was just curious knowing I'd been showing a lot of signs before. It was funny, Dr Kattan came in all negative Nancy like doubting telling me all the worst case scenarios blah blah blah and all I could do was laugh at him a little and roll my eyes with the nurse. I'd knew it'd be fine so we all just ignored his pessimism. Don't get me wrong super nice guy and he was a great doctor for me, but come on, ha!
After my water broke I had to stay in bed to monitor baby's heart rate for awhile so during this time Casey and I did some name searching and talking back and forth since we still hadn't decided on a name and we started watching Friends, it's now become tradition watching Friends at the hospital. I think it's a funny show with laughter that's good relief but you can also stop paying attention to it and not miss anything. After almost 2 hours time, about 1 hour of actual moving on the birthing ball or walking around and having decent contractions while walking around I was still where I had started off that day, dilated to 3 effaced to 50%, so pitocin we went which I was a-ok with with.
I think around 11 they got pitocin going, by 1 they were hard enough often enough where I knew I'd like my epidural knowing it may take time to come to me. Unfortunately it did take an hour for the Dr to get to me, and unfortunately the nurse turned down the pitocin so my contractions lessened in intensity and got further apart which, for me, makes the epidural harder to get. I say that because I'd personally like my contractions to be hard enough and difficult enough in which it makes getting the epidural a breeze in comparison so because that was not the case it made the epidural seem terribly painful, ha. And getting the epidural in did take longer than I'd had in the past. I don't know what it all was but it wasn't quick and easy. BUT it worked perfectly and beautifully once it was in and set up and there were no complications with it afterwards except a sore back so I really can't complain too much!
By 2:15 the epidural began working and I then got immediately sleepy, and maybe dizzy but I couldn't pin point it to that word necessarily and then I told her I could potentially throw up soon, well that darn blood pressure of mine suddenly lowered A TON, thus all those weird feelings. The nurse laid my bed back a little, and my blood pressure went back to normal right before they were about to give me some medicine to make it go back up. I guess it's sometimes normal for blood pressure to suddenly lower after an epidural, I'm glad they quickly knew what to do to attend to my needs and I'm also really glad I can give birth to a baby without feeling a ton of pain, ha.
Soon after my epidural she checked me to say I was only at a 4, and I was like for real?! After almost 3 hours on pitocin and only dilated to a 4!? This better not take all day, I was hoping for a baby 2 hours ago! So I was a tiny bit deflated where things were going. I knew it would still be fine I just wanted to hold my little baby already, I was not planning on this laboring process being long for baby number 4! So I went ahead and went to sleep to pass the time, ha.
I woke up around 4, the nurse checked me at 4:30 and I was a 6 so that made me happy but still thinking man I must have like 3+ hours left at this slow rate I'm going. At 5:10 she checked again and I was a 9, yay! Very soon after that I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure down there knowing that was the sign that I'm ready! So she began getting everything ready, I also mentioned I'm ok with waiting for baby to keep dropping by himself before I begin pushing because the last thing I wanted was a long pushing process, been there done that (with Max) and NOOOOOOO thank you. At 5:30 she checked me told me to do a little practice push with the next contraction, as I did so she quickly said "Oh no, stop, don't do that again until the Dr gets here" ha, so yay another great sign! Dr Kattan came in quickly after that got his gloves and coat thing on and first thing he said "Oh wow, that's his head right there." He directed me to do a little push to get his head out and then stop, seriously, smallest push of my life, so wonderful, he cleaned out baby's nose and mouth, one more small push and at 5:38 the rest of baby was out and put immediately on my chest!
That is the best feeling ever, so much immediate joy and happiness knowing your baby is finally here! Meeting someone you already love so much for the first time, the love and joy in your heart is just exploding and all you can do is just look at him and hold and sit there in awe that he's yours. The room was so calm during it all, just Casey, the Dr, and 2 nurses, all seemed so sweet and serene. Baby was healthy I was happy and not exhausted, Casey right there close by at my side just loving to finally hold my sweet baby boy. Small tears came out of my eyes with a big huge smile on my face just staring at this baby, I was just elated he was here!
Placenta was delivered, a small tear was repaired quickly and what seemed effortlessly, and we were soon left alone about 20 min after he was born! The whole time baby boy was trying his hardest to get something in his mouth, ha, rooting around with all his might. Once I could sit up he latched on perfectly right away and seriously nursed for like an hour and a half it seemed like as we were waiting for my legs to be strong enough for me to walk.
Casey's mom came with the kids around 7:15 to meet baby brother! They walked in and it was just adorable. Everyone asking for the baby with their very wide open eyes looking for him. The excitement on Maxson's face was insanely adorably, he was bursting at the seams. Max was the first to hold him and his smile could not be wiped away. He was so gentle and sweet and kept telling me how cute the baby was. When he was done we asked the twins if they wanted a turn and they were both immediately scared/turned off and just wanted Casey or Grammie to hold them, lol. Bryson finally got the courage to hold the baby after a little while and did great. A little after that Quinn said he was ready on the couch that was not by me and after that everyone wanted to keep holding them.
After about 10-15 min of them being there they all started touching things and getting wild so it was definitely time to go, ha. They were all so sweet saying bye to the baby. The birth of a new baby just makes your heart want to explode beyond belief and then when you see your kids meet that baby and hold him and love that just makes you want to die of happiness, seriously, so so so adorable.
After they left I was ready to try to walk and it was surprisingly easy and not painful, seriously, every birth and recovery just keeps getting easier and easier, my goodness. Once in our recovery room we went back to the drawing board on names. I had one I was SUPER leaning toward, and Casey had one he was super leaning toward but neither of us totally LOVED each other's name. I was starting to get a little deflated again thinking one of us would have to settle on a name we didn't absolutely love which made me sad because I LOVE our other little boys' names. We took out our computers/phones and went back to lots of intense searching. We'd call out names to each other that we either seriously liked personally or crazy names that were too hilarious not to share. But if someone said a name and the other kinda liked it we'd voice that opinion but mostly kept going on searching. Finally Casey came across Easton, which we had mentioned in name talking months ago but completely forgot about it! After a few more minutes we were both settled that Easton was our new little boys name. FINALLY about 5 hours after the little babe was born he was given a name:
EASTON WOODRUFF CUTLER.
And that is the wonderful birth story of our little Easton :)
The rest of our stay there was so wonderful, remember, I had the same delivery nurse for my post partum care which was so wonderful to have the same sweet gal, Amelia look after us. And same with the night nurse, same great gal each night.
The children came to visit once more and were adorable bringing Easton a little car. I wasn't as scary to them this time around being in normal clothes and I could actually get up from my bed. And then after 5 minutes the twins began being hoodlums like normal even climbing into the baby's rolling crib😳 oh brother. Soon after they left, ha.
The hospital stay is like a mini vacation for a mom with kids. Someone is there to take care of your every need at your beckon call (more water please!), meals with no prep or clean up, quietness, naps pretty much whenever you want, peace, a new sweet baby, lounging in PJ's and cozy socks all day. Seriously, I personally rather enjoyed my hospital stay lol. Casey was there a ton with me the first full day and also stayed with me the first night after he was born (bless my amazing mother in law!) and the 2nd night he was with kids and in the late morning came to pick up Easton and myself to go home!
The Christmas lights and abundance of snow (and ice!) were a fun scene from my window.
And that is Easton's birth story :) and our practically perfect hospital stay!
Recovery with this one has been a breeze. I could barely walk it seemed like with Maxson's. The twins' birth was easier but still pretty sore and walking was still kind of a burden even after day 3. And this one, it was more like send me on a mile fun run the day after! It's been breezy easy!
Thank you everyone for well wishes support and love! surprisingly it's kind of what they say it is, after 3 kids, anymore than that is the same, it's already more chaos than you can handle so why not add another to love and smother! By all means, I'm up for the task!
For fun:
HERE is Maxon's birth story
HERE is Bryson and Quinn's birth story
PS- I just read through both of those birth stories. 3rd/4th time go around birthing a child is like 1 million percent better than that first time. Oh my heck, I sound like a loofy sentimental hippie with Maxson's birth. Nope, I'm smarter now, never do I ever need an unmedicated child birth. You go through enough pain with the after birth cramps as it is that are horrifically painful! Get the epidural, have low expectations for recovery and birth and just everything and then you will be happy with your experience :)
Night before snuggles. Lots of "hold you's from these two. They had no clue what was going on but on the other hand they were overly clingy that night, ha.
The morning of the 16th, Casey's mom met us at our house to watch the kids. I was so thankful I got a really good night's sleep that night knowing, "hello tired hours/days/weeks/months coming up!" We left around 6:45, Casey needed to stop at McDonald's for his hearty breakfast to get him through his exhausting day 😏. We arrived at the hospital around 7, did I mention how icy it was outside? So much ice! The car was sliding everywhere and even we doubled on some of our steps due to slipping a little on the ice. But we made it into the hospital safe and timely.
I actually love being induced, you can be totally ready with your belongings, household, child care, mental status, it's a fun, calm, exciting experience! Because my other 2 pregnancies have been inductions due to high blood pressure and they turned out just fine, I knew this electively induced delivery would go just fine too. I'd been having tons of good contractions in the previous weeks and days and knew my body would be ready for it.
We did paperwork, got the IV in (only 1 poke! and it was technically in my arm, but super close by my wrist, not as bad as it being in my hand but seriously no complaints, first try and she got it not in my hand, bless that nurse. If you remember from the twins birth they had the hardest time getting it anywhere and end up in my right hand, made life not enjoyable). We met our nurse, Amelia, who we were so lucky to have, she was my delivery nurse the whole day and postpartum nurse the next 2 days, it was so great having the same gal who knew me and everything that was going on, that is definitely a pro to a small town hospital. She asked about my birth plan and I pulled out my typed and laminated paper which read:
EPIDURAL
We were quick friends after that.
Around 8:15 my doctor, Dr Kattan, came in to break my water. Now that is not the normal series of events. Usually they start pitocin and then break the water awhile later. I asked him if we could break the water first to see if my body went anywhere by itself, I was just curious knowing I'd been showing a lot of signs before. It was funny, Dr Kattan came in all negative Nancy like doubting telling me all the worst case scenarios blah blah blah and all I could do was laugh at him a little and roll my eyes with the nurse. I'd knew it'd be fine so we all just ignored his pessimism. Don't get me wrong super nice guy and he was a great doctor for me, but come on, ha!
After my water broke I had to stay in bed to monitor baby's heart rate for awhile so during this time Casey and I did some name searching and talking back and forth since we still hadn't decided on a name and we started watching Friends, it's now become tradition watching Friends at the hospital. I think it's a funny show with laughter that's good relief but you can also stop paying attention to it and not miss anything. After almost 2 hours time, about 1 hour of actual moving on the birthing ball or walking around and having decent contractions while walking around I was still where I had started off that day, dilated to 3 effaced to 50%, so pitocin we went which I was a-ok with with.
I think around 11 they got pitocin going, by 1 they were hard enough often enough where I knew I'd like my epidural knowing it may take time to come to me. Unfortunately it did take an hour for the Dr to get to me, and unfortunately the nurse turned down the pitocin so my contractions lessened in intensity and got further apart which, for me, makes the epidural harder to get. I say that because I'd personally like my contractions to be hard enough and difficult enough in which it makes getting the epidural a breeze in comparison so because that was not the case it made the epidural seem terribly painful, ha. And getting the epidural in did take longer than I'd had in the past. I don't know what it all was but it wasn't quick and easy. BUT it worked perfectly and beautifully once it was in and set up and there were no complications with it afterwards except a sore back so I really can't complain too much!
By 2:15 the epidural began working and I then got immediately sleepy, and maybe dizzy but I couldn't pin point it to that word necessarily and then I told her I could potentially throw up soon, well that darn blood pressure of mine suddenly lowered A TON, thus all those weird feelings. The nurse laid my bed back a little, and my blood pressure went back to normal right before they were about to give me some medicine to make it go back up. I guess it's sometimes normal for blood pressure to suddenly lower after an epidural, I'm glad they quickly knew what to do to attend to my needs and I'm also really glad I can give birth to a baby without feeling a ton of pain, ha.
Soon after my epidural she checked me to say I was only at a 4, and I was like for real?! After almost 3 hours on pitocin and only dilated to a 4!? This better not take all day, I was hoping for a baby 2 hours ago! So I was a tiny bit deflated where things were going. I knew it would still be fine I just wanted to hold my little baby already, I was not planning on this laboring process being long for baby number 4! So I went ahead and went to sleep to pass the time, ha.
I woke up around 4, the nurse checked me at 4:30 and I was a 6 so that made me happy but still thinking man I must have like 3+ hours left at this slow rate I'm going. At 5:10 she checked again and I was a 9, yay! Very soon after that I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure down there knowing that was the sign that I'm ready! So she began getting everything ready, I also mentioned I'm ok with waiting for baby to keep dropping by himself before I begin pushing because the last thing I wanted was a long pushing process, been there done that (with Max) and NOOOOOOO thank you. At 5:30 she checked me told me to do a little practice push with the next contraction, as I did so she quickly said "Oh no, stop, don't do that again until the Dr gets here" ha, so yay another great sign! Dr Kattan came in quickly after that got his gloves and coat thing on and first thing he said "Oh wow, that's his head right there." He directed me to do a little push to get his head out and then stop, seriously, smallest push of my life, so wonderful, he cleaned out baby's nose and mouth, one more small push and at 5:38 the rest of baby was out and put immediately on my chest!
That is the best feeling ever, so much immediate joy and happiness knowing your baby is finally here! Meeting someone you already love so much for the first time, the love and joy in your heart is just exploding and all you can do is just look at him and hold and sit there in awe that he's yours. The room was so calm during it all, just Casey, the Dr, and 2 nurses, all seemed so sweet and serene. Baby was healthy I was happy and not exhausted, Casey right there close by at my side just loving to finally hold my sweet baby boy. Small tears came out of my eyes with a big huge smile on my face just staring at this baby, I was just elated he was here!
Placenta was delivered, a small tear was repaired quickly and what seemed effortlessly, and we were soon left alone about 20 min after he was born! The whole time baby boy was trying his hardest to get something in his mouth, ha, rooting around with all his might. Once I could sit up he latched on perfectly right away and seriously nursed for like an hour and a half it seemed like as we were waiting for my legs to be strong enough for me to walk.
Casey's mom came with the kids around 7:15 to meet baby brother! They walked in and it was just adorable. Everyone asking for the baby with their very wide open eyes looking for him. The excitement on Maxson's face was insanely adorably, he was bursting at the seams. Max was the first to hold him and his smile could not be wiped away. He was so gentle and sweet and kept telling me how cute the baby was. When he was done we asked the twins if they wanted a turn and they were both immediately scared/turned off and just wanted Casey or Grammie to hold them, lol. Bryson finally got the courage to hold the baby after a little while and did great. A little after that Quinn said he was ready on the couch that was not by me and after that everyone wanted to keep holding them.
After about 10-15 min of them being there they all started touching things and getting wild so it was definitely time to go, ha. They were all so sweet saying bye to the baby. The birth of a new baby just makes your heart want to explode beyond belief and then when you see your kids meet that baby and hold him and love that just makes you want to die of happiness, seriously, so so so adorable.
After they left I was ready to try to walk and it was surprisingly easy and not painful, seriously, every birth and recovery just keeps getting easier and easier, my goodness. Once in our recovery room we went back to the drawing board on names. I had one I was SUPER leaning toward, and Casey had one he was super leaning toward but neither of us totally LOVED each other's name. I was starting to get a little deflated again thinking one of us would have to settle on a name we didn't absolutely love which made me sad because I LOVE our other little boys' names. We took out our computers/phones and went back to lots of intense searching. We'd call out names to each other that we either seriously liked personally or crazy names that were too hilarious not to share. But if someone said a name and the other kinda liked it we'd voice that opinion but mostly kept going on searching. Finally Casey came across Easton, which we had mentioned in name talking months ago but completely forgot about it! After a few more minutes we were both settled that Easton was our new little boys name. FINALLY about 5 hours after the little babe was born he was given a name:
EASTON WOODRUFF CUTLER.
And that is the wonderful birth story of our little Easton :)
The rest of our stay there was so wonderful, remember, I had the same delivery nurse for my post partum care which was so wonderful to have the same sweet gal, Amelia look after us. And same with the night nurse, same great gal each night.
The hospital stay is like a mini vacation for a mom with kids. Someone is there to take care of your every need at your beckon call (more water please!), meals with no prep or clean up, quietness, naps pretty much whenever you want, peace, a new sweet baby, lounging in PJ's and cozy socks all day. Seriously, I personally rather enjoyed my hospital stay lol. Casey was there a ton with me the first full day and also stayed with me the first night after he was born (bless my amazing mother in law!) and the 2nd night he was with kids and in the late morning came to pick up Easton and myself to go home!
The day we left the hospital the weather was FREEZING! Do you see that part below where it says "Feels like -16?!"
And that is Easton's birth story :) and our practically perfect hospital stay!
Recovery with this one has been a breeze. I could barely walk it seemed like with Maxson's. The twins' birth was easier but still pretty sore and walking was still kind of a burden even after day 3. And this one, it was more like send me on a mile fun run the day after! It's been breezy easy!
Thank you everyone for well wishes support and love! surprisingly it's kind of what they say it is, after 3 kids, anymore than that is the same, it's already more chaos than you can handle so why not add another to love and smother! By all means, I'm up for the task!
For fun:
HERE is Maxon's birth story
HERE is Bryson and Quinn's birth story
PS- I just read through both of those birth stories. 3rd/4th time go around birthing a child is like 1 million percent better than that first time. Oh my heck, I sound like a loofy sentimental hippie with Maxson's birth. Nope, I'm smarter now, never do I ever need an unmedicated child birth. You go through enough pain with the after birth cramps as it is that are horrifically painful! Get the epidural, have low expectations for recovery and birth and just everything and then you will be happy with your experience :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)